ABSENT VOTERS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 2895, 11 June 1925, Page 2

ABSENT VOTERS.

R ECE N T 1; EGU L A TIC) XS. PROCEDURE SIMPLIFIED. Auckland, June 10. It is not generally known that the procedure under which absent voters may take part in a Parliamentary election has been greatly simplified by the regulations issued Alice the passing of the Legislature Amendment Act of last session. Formerly it was necessary for a voter, temporarily absent from the electorate in which he was enrolled, to obtain a special permit before the election day. This is not now required. The absent voter has only to go into any Post Office in the Dominion and apply for a special electoral declaration form. When he has filled in and signed the form he is handed a voting-paper on which the names of the candidates have been written. He marks this in the ordinary way, and the postal official, acting as a deputy returning officer, then seals up the declaration and voting-paper in an envelope, and addresses it to the returning officer in the electoral district concerned. The returning officer is required to compare the signature on the'declaration with that upon the card filled in by the elector when applying for registration. If they are similar the vote is recorded. If not it is rejected.

The procedure could hardly be simpler, and it has the advantage that it provides for all cases of sudden absence from an electorate.