THE DUTY OE VOTING

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 7, 18 February 1925, Page 31

THE DUTY OE VOTING

To the Editor. 4.. Sir, — In the Tablet of January 28 I notice you present under this heading •in epitome of the views expressed by Dr. .John A. Ryan, of the Catholic University of America, and with your permission would offer a few comments thereon. Doubtless few people will dissent from Dr. Ryan’s advice that the citizen should vote for '‘honest and competent candidates.” The difficulty, however, is that Dr. Ryan’s counsel is quite impracticable without a proper electoral system. America is pre-eminently the country of “machine” politics. There the voter usually has no option but to support “a ticket” adopted either by the Democratic or Republican party, and it is hardly necessary to add that the personality of the candidates usually counts for nothing. 'Moreover, should a candidate of independent views offer himself for election it is notorious that the Bosses of both factious will combine to crush him. As for honest and competent candidates, men of enlightened views find the party shackle so odious tint noli tics hive become a by-word, and men representative of the intellect ol the community prefer accordingly to leave politics to the narty Bosses and their backs. If any of your readers should think this an exaggerated picture he need only consult The American Commonwealth,, a scholarly work by the late Lord Bryce, who was a sympathetic critic of American institutions. The learned author lays the whole vicious system hare, and lie frankly admits that the Americans have yet '""'to learn how to govern cities! If the government of cities has broken down one can hardly expect a better state of affairs in Federal or State politics. With all due respect to Dr. Ryan, therefore, it seems of little use counselling electors how to vote when they are the victims of an electoral system in which individual electors are powerless. As a matter of fact, however, things are very little better elsewhere. Air. Jerome K. Jerome s satire on the electoral system of England, which you reproduce, is really an accurate representation of the position, and, with very little modification, is applicable to New Zealand. Here is the position in this country: Two or three officials, who are supposed to he independent of party politics, meet in an office in Wellington, and divide the country up into electorates once every five years. The elector has no voice in the fixing of the boundaries, hut is boxed into whatever district the Representation Commissioners think fit, and very frequently he is quite unaware of the electoral district in which he is to vote until the approach of the next ensuing election. When the election comes along, he finds the nominees of two or perhaps three parties offering themselves. He has had no voice whatever in ■ ••• selecting the candidates, and very often ,he " .--is not in sympathy with any of them. Among the candidates, there may bo one for whom he can vote conscientiously, hut, inasmuch as that candidate has no chance of election, he feels no enthusiasm to work for him, and

if he votes at all does so in a. half-hearted kind of way. In face of all these facts he is still called a free and independent elector, and he is periodically admonished about the duty of voting! This is an accurate representation of the state of affairs obtaining under the present electoral system —if it can lie called a system —and I submit that as long as it continues it is idle to expect either an intelligent interest in public affairs or a satisfactory system of government.

Fortunately there is a remedy for this state of affairs. In spite of the tacit opposition of machine politicians of all parties there is

a growing current of opinion, even in America, in favor of proportional representation. In connection with that system let me point out the following facts;

(1) The system implies large electoral districts, each returning a group of representatives ;

(2) No candidate requires a majority of the votes cast, but every candidate will be elected who polls the electoral quota ;

(3) The electoral quota necessary to secure the election of a representative is found by dividing the number of votes cast by one more than the number of representatives for each district. Supposing, for example, that 30.000 votes have been cast and five members are to be elected, the electoral onota will be 5001, and hence a minority of 5000 electors is sure of having one repre- • X sentative ;

(4) As a group of representatives have to be letnrned. the elector will have a large choice of candidates, and accordingly there are certain to be some whom every voter can give his hearty support.

The svstem is simplicity itself, and anyone who will give it the consideration it deserves will realise that the system offers a complete solution of the problem of Election and Representation, When such a system has been realised in practice it will be .found that most of the evils inseparable from the present state of affairs will disappear, inasmuch as the power of machine politicians will be broken, and men of independent views will he able to assert themselves. In the absence of such a system it is futile to admonish the electors, except to counsel them In bend their energies towards its realisation. 1 am, etc., V. J. O’Regan. Wellington, February 12.