THE ELECTORAL LAW.

Motueka Star, Volume III, Issue 125, 24 October 1902, Page 4

THE ELECTORAL LAW.

OFFENCES AT ELECTIONS. Mock ballot papers are illegal, and any one erasing the official mark on a ballot paper or defacing it in any way is liable to a fine not exceeding .£SO. A new section has also been inserted, nroviding that every person who, at any time between the issue of the writ and the day of the poll, publishes or exposes, or causes to-be published or exposed, to public view any document or writing or printed matter containing any untrue statement defamatory of anv candidate, and calculated to influence the t'ote of any elector, is liable to a penalty not exceeding .£SO, or to imprisonment for any period not exceeding three months. It is also an offence to forge, counterfeit, fraudulently deface, or fraudulently destroy any ballot paper, or the official mark on any ballot paper ; to supply a ballot paper to any one without due authority; to fraudulently put into a ballot box any paper other than the proper ballot paper ; to fraudulently take out of the polling booth any ballot paper ; or to interfere with any ballot box or ballot papers without authority. If a Returning Officer, or officer, or clerk commits any such offence, he is liable to imprisonment for any term not exceeding two yeais, with or without hard labour; in the case of any other person the term is limited to six months. CORRUPT and ILLEGAL PRACTICES.

Bribery and treating are forbidden. No person may, for the purpose of promoting or procuring the election of a candidate, be employed for payment or promise of payment as agent, clerk, or messenger, except as provided by the fourth schedule of the Act, which authorises the appointment of a scruitneei for each ballot box, and one clerk and one messenger for each polling place for conducting business in the committee rooms ; as committeeman, canvasser, watcher, guard, detective, or torch-bearer ; or to act or render service m any other capacity ; or, if an elector, as clerk or messenger.

Payment must not be made for the conveyance of electors to or from the poll, for bands, torches, flags, banners, cockades, ribbons, or other marks of distinction, for exhibiting bills, addresses or notices, or for the use of any house, building, erection, place, board, or thing for the purpose of any such exhibition.

It is also an illegal practice, punishable by a fine not exceeding £2O, to provide money for an illegal practice, to procure the voting by unqualified persons, or to make any wager or bet on the result of an election.