COUNTING VOTES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2615, 10 November 1915, Page 7

COUNTING VOTES

HOW IT IS DONE IN PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTAT| °N, A demonstration of tie method of counting votes under the system of proportional representation was given iu a committee room in Parliament Buildings yesterday by. Mr. J. H., Humplireys, secretary of the . Proportional Representation League of Great Britain, to Ministers of the Crown and members of the staff ■of the. Electoral DepartUient. '

_ Mr. Humphreys, having been introduced .by the Prime Minister, made a, few general.references to the scheme l)v which members of the Legislative Council are to be elected by proportional representation. Ho.said that the electorates in New Zealand were to be larger in area thajx. any electorates' where tlie system had been yet tried, but lie had no fears that this would be> any bar to its success. In no country where the system had been tried had the machinery broken down. The object of proportional representation with the single ' transferable l vote was' to ensure not only that minorities should havo some representation, tat that majorities should have. their fair representation. ! A man gave his 1 first preference to one candidate, marking 'one against ; his name. To the candidate whom he liked nest in order he gave second' prefer' ence, marking that narno two, the next name three, on. . These figures "were ah instruction. to the returning officer that in the event of candidate marked one not being 'elected, tho vote might be transferred to the, candidate marked two,, or in the same way to the candidate marked three 1 or four. A. model eleotion was then conducted, with the assistance of Mr. G. G. ,Hodgkins and members.of the electoral staff. Mr. Hodgkins had marked a bundle of sample', ballot papers, and a number of trays had been ticketed with the names, of the candidates. 1 .The first step was to sort'the papers into the several trays, acoording to the first preferences. This resulted •as follows 82, Carroll J5, Herdman 80, Herries 55, Hiridmairsh *6, Massey 208, M'Combs 40, Ward 100. Wilford 35.

The. next, step j was to determine -the quota, which-was done by dividing.tlie total number of votes by one more than the number of seats, this being tho smallest number that could possibly elect a candidate. , As there were 701 votes and five seats, the quota was 117. Mr. Massey, tlie candidate with the highest number of votes, 208, more than the quota, was thereupon declared elected, and the ■ votes tcasfc for Mr, Massey were; sorted according / to their second preference.' .Only the surplus votes should:be allowed to other candidatey for second preference, however, and after Mr. Massey's votes had been all sorted, the numbers of votes allotted to the candidates were multiplied by the fraction 91 over 208, 91 being Mr. Mas-' soys surplus, and 208 his total rote. 1 his allocation of preferences gave Mr Hordman . 135 . votes, and : lie was therefore elccted, hdving secured more than, the quota. In the same way Mr. iierdraan s surplus of 18 votes was apportioned according-to third preferf 10 ®' an f this raised Mr. Allen's total v'-ir' v e ' lav ' a ' so secured some ot Mr. Massey's second preference, so that he was elected.' 'His surplus of 9 happened all to be for Mr. Herries. So it was that Sir. Massey's supporter.) not only elected him, but raised Mr. rlerdman and Mr.. Allen's vote above the quota. ' . '

The next process was to apportion the_ second preferences of the votes recorded as first preferences for the lowest candidate. Of the second preferences 18 went to Sir Joseph Ward, and Jie was deblarod elected. .Mr- M'Oombs was then at the bottom or the poll, and his votes were apportioned, with the result that Mr Herdman s vote was raised above the quota, and he was elected. All Mr. M'Comb's votes coming.to him as second preference. This concluded the election. .Mr. Humphreys remarked that in an electorate 111 which the .Reform Party !f d a big majority, having 425 votes, it would have been possible under tho present system for the party to have captured all the five seats, but tinder proportional representation they had won only three out of fivo. • While, the count was proceeding, Mr. Humphreys answered certain 1 questions. He said that thore would bo no objec--lolk ™. a f°unt,of votes being made 1:1 the booths by the Deputy-lleturning nS) ? nt l ttle an . n ouncement of 'tho rosults of that preliminary count, but , he count would have to be made at the central office. He did not think it- would bo impossible to retain the country quota" in New Zealand for the election of the House of Eepresentatives of SO members, but he did not think it would be practicable to retain the ouota m of 20 members of. «Pl»r House. The irreducible minimum of members to bo returned by a constituency would be' (3), but he preferred to suggest a minimum of five membei-s. In view of this, it would bo impossible to divide New Zealand into_ districts which would not contain a big city, or one or two big towns, making tho retention of tho country quota impossible. For the oleotion of members of the House he would sugser.t that the big cities with their immediate suburbs should be each an electorate, returning from five to seven members, and that tlie rqst 'of the country should bp divided into other districts. He didi not think that in New Zealand more than one-eighth of the population, assuming that parties remained as they were, could go unreoresented. On the motion of Dr. M'Nab, a vote of thanks was 'accorded to Mr. J-Tum-pheys for his interesting talk and demonstration, and he,' in turn, thariked the Prime Minister and his colleagues for having attended.

To-night Mr. Humphreys will deliver an address 011 his subject in the Con. cerfc Chamber at the Town Hall.