AN ELECTION DODGE.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2554, 28 May 1881, Page 2

AN ELECTION DODGE.

.A curious illustration of the old advice “to vote early and vote often ’, —at least as regards the latter part of it —lies, according to a Home paper, recently come to light in Liverpool. It appears that at the last municipal elections nearly 300 persons on the Liberal side gave duplicate votes ; that is, being qualified in more than one ward, they voted in all in which they had a qualification. Some electors voted in as many as seven different places. The Conservatives, on the other hand —so at least their party organs assert—were deterred from practising this duplicate voting by a sham circular, purporting to be issued by the Mayor of Liverpool, and warning them that such duplication was illegal and had penal consequences. Whether it is so or not, in the sense in which it was carried on by the Liverpool Liberals, seems to be doubtful. Tbe letter of the law is that an elector may only vote once at the same election, but the question is whether contests going on at one and the same time in different wards can be regarded as the same election. This point has yet so be decided by the lawyers, but in the meanwhile the Liberals of Liverpool give themselves the benefit of the doubt.