MUNICIPAL ELECTION.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19485, 9 May 1933, Page 4

MUNICIPAL ELECTION.

To the Editor of " The Timaru Herald " Sir, —The enormous number of informal votes discovered at the official re-oount this morning must be attributed mainly to the Act which demands that all names not wanted must be struck out. For instance: An elector desirous of voting for two councillors out of nineteen must firt locate the two, then strike out the seventeen remaining. The Returning Officer must also check the 19 names whereas if the original method of placing a cross opposite the names he wishes to vote for, it can obviously be done in a fraction of the time, the counting is simplified, and the probability of error is reduced to a minimum.

Some years ago, a, Timaruvian designed a voting machine which was intended to be fool-proof. In its application the voter simply stepped into the voting cubicle and moved, alternately, each lever opposite the name of the candidates seeking election. An automatic locking arrangement made it impossible to vote more than once for any candidate, or for more than the number to be elected, until the elector vacated the platform in front of the machine which was thereby automatically set for the next voter. A small type-writer attachment, controlled by the Returning Officer, printed the voter’s number on the back of the registering sheet before voting—a formality which, in my , opinion, is of doubtful value except to reveal to the Returning Officer how anyone has voted, should he so desire. The ballot is therefore not absolutely secret, and it is time that the value of this appendage was recast. The inventor, however, after perfecting his design, failed to discover an honest method of overcoming Government officialism, which, in his experience, was opposed to the introduction of all labour-saving devices. He, consequently, forthwith abandoned the 1 project and destroyed his design. Recent elections in Timaru reveal the fact that the present system of voting is faulty. Some electors are totally indifferent as to results, but it may safely be inferred that 80 per cent, of those informal votes were accidental, and it i-, most unpleasant to think that one’s .deliberate vote, cast with usual care, proved to be one of the many informal. Short of a voting machine, some votes are bound to be informal, but I trust the new Borough Council, brimful of energy and executive ability, will, at least, demand re-instatement of voting by means of a cross opposite the name of the candidate the voter desires to be elected. —I am, etc., C. H. MASON. Timaru, May 4.