ABSENT VOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 2960, 10 November 1925, Page 3

ABSENT VOTES.

NEW METHODS CUMBROUS. PRIVILEGE ABUSED. The number of absent voters’ permits issued under the ofd sytem at the 1922 election was 19,797 exclusive of seamen’s rights. For the recent election approximately 30,000 persons used the facilities provided under the new Act. As far as the voters are concerned the change in the system has thus been justified but the methods employed "have proved a little cumbrous for the returning officers. With the permit system for instance it was a matter of a moment to compare signatures on permit and application form which were received by the returning officer at the same time as the ballot paper. With the present system, application forms have had to be sent on to the registrar’s office to have the signatures checked and in many instances ballot papers and application forms did not come together. The experience in Palmerstob has been that there were a great many more irregularities than under the old style of absent voting all of which entailed more work and will hang up the recount (says the Times.) In addition, abuses of the new privilege are reported from city electorates where electors sought to make use of it to save themselves a comparatively short journey to a polling booth in their own electoral district. Returning officers had no power to refuse to issue ballot papers to any so-called absent voters.

The importance of absent votes in six constituencies can be gauged by the official return of their numbers :—Pahiatua, 353 (Ransom, majority 54) ; Taranaki, 520 (Bellringer, majority 51); Oliinemuri 421 (Samuels, majority 167); Waimarino 620 (Smith’s majority 197); Lyttelton 604 (M’Combs’s majority 5); Westland 330 (O’Brien’s majority 15).