SOLDIERS' VOTES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 11, 8 October 1918, Page 4

SOLDIERS' VOTES

A BY-ELECTION HITCH.

Complaint "is being made m Taranaki that electors at present in the military camps are not getting full opportunity to vote in the by-election next Thursday. The position is that officers and men on the' Taranaki electoral roll have been granted leave from camp in order that they may record their votes, but they are not being allowed travelling warrants. The departure of a. Taranaki draft lias been delayed in order that the men may be able to vote at the by-eleotion. It is being- urged that the Defence Department ought to provide travelling facilities for the men; but Section 22U of the Legislature Act forbids the payment of costs of conveyance of voters to a polling place, and it appears that the issue of travelling warrants to electors at present in camp would constitute a breach of the law, possibly involving tie upsetting of the election. The Government, it appears, has no power to establish a polling booth in a military camp for the benefit of Taranaki electors. The ordinary law icquires that the polling booths shall _be situated within the electorate in which the election is being held. The Expcdiionary Forces Voting Act of 1914 mado special provision for the_ soldiers as far as tlje general election of that year was concerned, but it did not cover the contingency of a by-election. l'ho difficulty could have boon overcome by the issue of absent voters' permits! to the soldiers if it had beeu foreseen in time. It seems now that tlie Taranaki men in the camps will not bo able to vote'unless they pay their own train fares.