QUALIFICATIONS TO VOTE IN NEXT WEEK’S POLLING

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 60, 4 March 1949, Page 5

QUALIFICATIONS TO VOTE IN NEXT WEEK’S POLLING

Qualifications required by electors in order to vote in the gaming and licensing polls next Wednesday, March 9, are described by the Chief Electoral Officer, Mr A. G. Harper, in a statement issued yesterday. Every person who still retains the qualification under which he enrolled prior to the last general election, and those who have since enrolled is entitled to vote on the proposals put forward in the gaming and licensing polls. Tire question of eligibility for the special local polls to be held concurrently in the King Country and in the Ashburton and Geraldine licensing areas is slightly complicated, and it is the primary duty of the individual elector to satisfy him or herself on this point. However, everything that can be done by the Government and the Electoral Department to avoid confusion has been done. Strict Qualifications The Department makes it clear that voting in the King Country and in the Ashburton and Geraldine districts will be based strictly on residential qualifications. Votes on local licensing or restoration questions may be cast only by bona fide residents whose address on the roll is within the particular area concerned. Such votes must be cast at a polling place within that area, or by means of a postal vote arranged with the returning officer of the electoral district affected. There is no provision for absentee votes in the local polls, but there is in the national polls. Broadly speaking, electors in the special licensing areas may vote only in accordance with the addresses shown against their names on the electoral rolls or supplementary rolls. Thus electors who have recently moved into one of the special areas may vote on the local issues only if they have carried out their duty as required by law and notified the move as soon as it was made. Those who have moved into such an area but failed to notify the fact are entitled to vote only on the national issues.

Definite Boundaries Some electors, particularly those living close to a boundary of one of the licensing districts involved, may have doubts as to their exact residential qualifications, continues the statement. This is the first occasion in the history of New Zealand that eligibility for a vote has depended upon precise definition of the King Country boundaries, which include parts of or cut across six European and. two Maori electoral districts.