HOW TO VOTE

Waikato Independent, Volume XXXI, Issue 2780, 26 November 1931, Page 2

HOW TO VOTE

THE CORRECT PROCEDURE. DIFFERENT CLASSES OF VOTERS. In view of the polling day being less than a week away a few notes on points closely connected with the procedure of recording one’s vote in the correct manner may not be amiss. An ordinary voter at the General Election is a person voting in a pollingbooth in the district where the voter is registered as an elector. An absent voter is one who cannot go to a booth in his own district on 1 polling clay, but can go to a booth in any other district, and there record a vote for his own electorate. A postal voter is one who cannot, for any of a variety of reasons, go to a booth in his own or any other district. J It is evident that a good deal of confusion exists about the distinction between absent and postal voters. It is not necessary for an elector who has to record an absent vote to obtain any permit beforehand. All that is necessary is for him to go on election day to any polling booth that may be convenient for him, and there tell the deputy returning officer that his name is on the roll for sueh-an-sueh an electorate. The absent voter is then required to fill in a declaration form, and the deputy returning officer issues him with a special ballot paper, on which the returning officer has written the names of the candidates in the absent voter’s electorate. The voter deals with the i ballot paper in the ordinary way, strikj ing out the names of the candidates for whom lie docs not wish to vote. The I deputy- returning officer puts the bal-lot-paper, bearing his stamp, in an envelope addressed to the returning officer for the absent voter’s electorate, and encloses this envelope, together with the voter’s signed declaration, in a second envelope addressed to the registrar of electors of the voter’s district. When the registrar of electors receives the communication through the post, he opens the outer envelope only, and verifies the declaration of the absent voter. If the declaration is true, the registrar certifies it, and then the returning officer receives the envelope containing the ballot-paper. After the returning officer has made his official count of votes, the absent vote envelopes are opened and the papers dealt with. Absent votes entered in places remote from a voter’s electorate sometimes, of course, do not reach a returning officer till at least two days after polling day. As soon as possible after noon on the day when nominations of candidates close, the various returning officers throughout New Zealand send telegrams to the Chief Electoral Officer, Wellington, giving the names of candidates nominated. From these particulars every returning officer is supplied with-the names of the candidates in all electorates, so that a reference to his records is all he requires before writingon the special ballot-paper the names of an absent voter’s candidates. Postal Votes. For postal votes, certificates have first to bo applied for from the returning officer of an elector's district. Before a permit is issued, the registrar of electors has to certify that a person is eligible to vote. A postal vote may be recorded by any person who, because of illness, infirmity, residence in a remote locality or distance from, any polling booth cannot visit a booth on polling day. For instance, anyone who through the hours of polling on election day will not be with'n five miles by the nearest practicable route of any polling booth, or who will be travelling under conditions which prevent this attendance at a booth, can have a postal vote. A lightliousekeeper and the members of his family and his staff qualify as postalvoters. A postal voting paper may be issued, and the vote exercised, before the actual election day. The certificates and papers must reach the office of the returning officer for the electoral district concerned before 7 p.in. on election day however. Seaman’s Vote. A seaman registered as an elector may obtain a "seaman’s elector’s right,” entitling him to record his vote in any part of New Zealand, before a collector of Customs, at any time between the issue of tlie writ and election day. A seaman voting in his own electoral district on the day of the poll may do so without a seaman’s right, but if a, right has previously been issued to him lie must surrender it to the deputy returning officer at the polling booth. There are two classes of persons who though not registered as electors of any district, may, on making a declaration on the prescribed form that they are qualified to be registered, vote as electors of the district in which they arc residing. They are: Any person whose name is ruled out. in rod on any certified copy of the roll.