PLURAL VOTING.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1380, 5 March 1912, Page 5

PLURAL VOTING.

HOUSE OF COMMONS BILL. Bx Tolerraph—Pr»as A«soclatl»n— CoDjrlffhl London, March 3. In the House of Commons, a Bill introduced by Mr. Harold Baker, Liberal member for Accrington, abolishing plural voting, was read a second time by 223 votes to 142. Tho Government declined to say. at present whether they would adopt the Bill.' ACTIVITY OF THE PLURAL VOTER. The total number of names on the British Parliamentary Register for 1911 is 7,904,465, divided as follow:— Owners 631,783 Occupiers 0,804,718 Lodgers 305,391 Freemen, freeholders, etc. 55,903 University 40,070 Total 7,904,105 The constituencies which are most seriously affected by the plural voter (says tho "Daily News Year Book") aro the English counties, which return 253 members to Parliament. Tho voters on. their registers number 3,751,039, 558,859 of whom are ownership voters. That is, the ownership voters form approximately 15 per cent, of the electorate. It is, of course, necessary to distinguish between tho ownership vote of persons living in the constituency and the outvoter propor. Figures published in January, 1911, in tho "Liberal Magazine" show t'hat in 25 constituencies tho cutvoters were numerous enough to turn tho issue of the election. It is fairly safa to assume that thrco-quarters of tho out-voters' votes aro given to Unionists, and on that very reasonable assumption a good many seals were lost to tho Liberals which would have been secured by them if an Act prohibiting plural voting had been in operation. At least four other seats may safely bo added, although the exact figures are not available. They are:— ■ Lanes., N. Lonsdale; Lanes, Newton; Notts, Bassetlaw.; Staffs, Kingswinford. On Mav 2, 1900, Mr. Lewis Harcourt introduced a Plural Voting Bill, which was passed through nil its stages in the House of Commons, but was rejected by the Lords on second reading on December 10.

Mr. Harcourfs Bill provided that:— 1. No man may vote more than ince. 2. The penalty for voting more than once shall bo the usual penalty for impersonation, i.e., imprisonment for a period of not more than two years with hard labour—the penalty fixed by tho Corrupt Practices Act, 1889, or a fine not greater than J!500. 3. Electors with several qualifications must select for which constituency they intend to vote.

A more drastic proposal than that contained iii the Harcourt Bill would not allow, tho man with more than one qualification to ohoose in which constituency he would record his vote, but would make residence a necessary qualification. The Government desired to reintroduce the Plural Voting Bill in 1911, but owing to the prolonged debates on the Parliament Bill and the Insurance Bill time would not permit.