HEAVY POLLING

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 29, 27 April 1927, Page 9

HEAVY POLLING

CITY ELECTIONS CROWD AT TOWN HALL TOO MANY NAMES For the first time in election history* in Auckland, there w6re people waiting at the polling-booth at the Town Hall this morning for the booth to open. There may have been one or two previously who had decided to vote before reaching their offices, but this morning there was quite a crowd, and. steady polling set in immediately. The indications are that the poll will be very heavy on this occasion, and also that the percentage of informal votes will show an increase owing to the great length of the voting papers. A few of the booths reported that there was no rush, but at the main booths the story was different, and the usual thing was to see quite a number of people spread round the booths waiting for someone else to vacate, and there were often long waits, for the quickest voters took several minutes to deal with their papers. The experience at the main booths is that there are quite a number who are exercising their votes on the mayoralty and Harbour Board, and are leaving their Hospital Board and City Council papers without recording a vote on them. VOTING DIFFICULTIES Expectations that • there would be difficulties about the voting proved to be only too well founded. “It’s no use,” remarked one voter to a SUN reporter. “I’ve read all about these chaps, and they all seem so dashed good that I can’t decide between them. As I don’t know them, what am I to do?” Which goes to show that sooner or later there will have to be a radical change in the system of elections in Auckland. One of the returning officers at a small booth, in the early hours of the poll, took an opportunity to time some of the voters. £le said that one business man who came in, and got right down to business, apparently knowing what he was going to do, took exactly eight minutes. Several people, either illiterate cr with poor eyesight, took over half an hour, and the average time for -voting was about 15 to 20 minutes. THE LADY WINS It was while he was making these observations that an old lady came in, and lie remarked “She’ll take half an hour.” As a matter of fact, after having some difficulty in deciding what end of the crayon pencil to write with, and eventually using the wrong end, the lady proceeded to exercise her vote in the most determined manner, and was through in very little more time than the business man. CARDS HELP There was no scarcity of "tickets,” and these are being distributed broadcast. At least one of them served its purpose. The voter appealed to the officer in charge for assistance, but it was of course beyond his powers to advise the voter as to who he should vote for. However, the voter suddenly remembered something, sought in his pocket, found a ticket which lie had been given somewhere outside, and proceeded to cast a vote —a vote which, of course, showed a distinct lack of any ability j on the part of the voter to take any valuable part in the election of the city representatives. At another booth the voter apparently “took the count” after wading through the mayoral, hospital, and* harbour sheets, for he left his sheet of 61 council candidates behind on the floor, and it went into the box to swell the number of informal papers. RESULTS TO-NIGHT The only results in the Auckland City elections that will be available to-night will be the maycral. It is expected that this count will be com pletecl by 10 p.m., and will be displayed in Queen Street by lantern slides in the form of progress reports. Suburban results will be available sooner. The Auckland wireless station will also broadcast results.