TO SIMPLIFY POLLS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1873, 6 October 1913, Page 7

TO SIMPLIFY POLLS.

MACHINE BY LOCAL INVENTORS. A voting machine, invented and'made bv Messrs. C. 1 Fisher arid H. Winnie, of Lower Hutt, is being exhibited/in one of. the committee rooms of Parliament Buildings now by one of the inventors, Mr. Fislier. It is ossential for tho proper working of the machine that it shall be enclosod in a small compartment with a door at each end, for the' opining 1 and closing of the doors has to do, with the operation of the invention. Assuming that the machine were being used the votor would be given by a poll clerk a motal disc about the size of a crown piece, or possibly, if he had at the same time to record a vote on the lioensing issue, two discs. He would be admitted alone into tho room or box whore the machine was set up, and he would drop his disc into ono of sovoral slots marked clearly with tho name of th« candidates. Ho might take his disc out without recording a vote, or he might bv mistake put his disc into a' wrong slot in the same way as he might, with a pencil, strike out a wrong name, and if he had two discs he might vote for two candidates, but if he had a pocketful of discs-he could not record moro than one vote for any one candidate. He could, however, vote once for every candidate. ' The great ndvantage of tho machine is 'that immediately the polling is ovor, tho number' of vote 3 cast for every candidate can be read off the automatic recorders at once,_ and if a record has made a mistake it will bo discovered later when the discs, which aro caught in lockers in the machine, as tho -votes are recorded, are counted tho nest day. The recorders aro simple as possible, and apparently quito roliablo. Of course, they are "oovered so that they cannot bo read' while the voting is going on. The machine is boing offered. by Mr. Fisher to tho Government.