THE GENERAL ELECTION

Waikato Times, Volume 104, Issue 17533, 15 October 1928, Page 11

THE GENERAL ELECTION

ISSUE OF WRITS, ] tJYTLE TIME FOR ENROLMENT. POSTAL VOTING SYSTEM. The writs for the general election are to be issued on Friday next. The Act provides for the closing of the roils at 6 p.m. on the day of the issue of thu writs. There is, therefore, very liltie time left In-'Which to get enrolled. The Legislature Amendment Act passed last year extended the period for the. return of the writs from 28 days, to 40., This extension of Lime was necessitated by the introduction of postal voting and the increase in the number of absentee voters. The franchise iu Now Zealand is, in fact, wider than it lias ever been before. The postal voting system is available to any elector who—(a) Will on polling day be absent from New Zealand. (b) Will not throughout the hours of polling on polling day be within five miles by the nearest practical route of any polling place. (c) Will throughout the hours of polling on polling day be travelling under conditions which will preclude him from attending at ' any polling place to vote. • (d) Is ill or infirm, and by reason of such illness or infirmity wil! 0e Pp c ~ flilded frcm attending at any polling place to vote, or, in the case of a woman, will by approaching or recent, maternity be precluded from attending :il any polling place to vote. (e) Is a lighthouse keeper or member of a lighthouse keeper's staff, or is ihe wife of a lighthouse keeper or the wife of a member of a lighthouse keeper's staff, and will be precluded from attending at any polling place to vote. . . Postal vote-certificates and postal ballot papers may be issued by returning officers at any time during ordinary office hours after the issue of the writ and before the time prescribed fpr the close of the poll. An elector desirous of voting by this means should communicate with the returning officer of the district for which he is registered, when a form of application will be forwarded to him by post, with • extracts from the regulations relating to postal voting printed on the back thereof. The regulations are to be read carefully before completing the form of application. ' The provisions In regard to seamen's voting rights have not been altered" since last' election. A seaman is required to register in the electorate in which he is ordinarily domiciled, and, if he has no place of abode, at the port where he signed articles, or, if discharged, at the port of his discharge. A seaman can vote at any time after the issue of the writ, including the period before nominations have closed. In this case he may write down the name of a person who he believes is likely to be a candidate, and If that person is nominated the vote becomes valid. Seamen who leave the Dominion before the issue of the writs and do not return until after the election cannot vote. . A new provision in the Act requires a person applying to vote as an absentee to satisfy the deputy-returning officer that he is unable to vote in his own district. This has been Included in order to overcome a difficulty experienced last election, when electors enrolled in, say, Hamilton, voted as absent voters in Waikato, because they would not take the trouble to go to a. polling booth in their own electorate, though they could easily have done so. Now that enrolment is compulsory, every person who is eligible as an elector should be on the roll. Enrolment forms are available, and copies of the roll may bo seen at all post offices It is therefore the duty of every citi7.cn to see that he or she is on the roll before the writs are issued.