LAST CHANCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 486, 16 October 1928, Page 13

LAST CHANCE

ELECTORS MUST ENROL SOON SPECIAL VOTING PROVISION During the next three days electors throughout the Dominion will be given their last chance of registering their names on the Parliamentary roll, for the supplementary rolls close on Friday of this week. The writ giving the date for the closure of nominations, also, will be issued on Friday. The penalties for nonregistration are severe. THE political campaign is now well A under way, and in a few weeks the electors will be asking themselves, not what their particular candidate is representing—they will have decided this by then—but how they will exercise their privilege at the ballot box. Although it is the simplest procedure imaginable, many people are almost completely ignorant of the formalities they must perform when they do their bit toward returning their candidate to power.

For the fit and well who are able to attend the polling booth on election day, everything is easy. The returning officers explain the procedure, and the record of their vote is straight going. For those who are unable, through various reasons, to attend the polling booth, special provisions ajre made. For the first time in New Zealand, tho ill and infirm are provided for in the postal voting clauses, which also include travellers who cannot reach a booth, lighthouse keepers and their families, and certain other specified persons who cannot attend personally. If a prospective voter reaches the age of 21 after the rolls have closed, but before the election date, he (or she) is not entitled to vote, and must remain without the franchise until the following General Election. At every election many cases of this sort arise.

Absent voting is easy. If a person bo outside his correct electorate on polling day, all he has to do is to go to the nearest booth, and sign a document, giving name, electorate and address, and vote in the ordinary way, but for his home electorate. MAORIS ARE KEEN

In cases of mistaken entry in th* roll, special provisions apply. For instance if the registrar has acknowledged the registration of an elector, but the name fails to show up when tho roll is printed, the elector may, by making a statutory declaration, exercise his franchise. Electors whose names have been ruled off the roll by mistake, also, may cast their vote by making a similar declaration to the satisfaction of the returning officer. Tho Maori election date has not yet been fixed, but if the usual procedure is followed, it will be held on the day before the * General Election. Interest in the Maori electorate* is high on this occasion, and the eagerness which is being displayed by the natives to possess active and capable men in the House of Representatives is demonstrated by the fact that in three of the four Maori electorates there are two or more candidates. Tho Maoris of the North have gone so far as to form a Maori party of their own. SEAMAN VOTERS Special provision is made for seamen belonging to New Zealand who may not be ashore on the day of the election. A seaman belonging to any vessel trading exclusively within the territorial waters of New Zealand or in any ship trading to New Zealand ports at intervals of not more than three months, can obtain an elector's right, and, on handing it to the Collector of Customs at any port, is entitled to vote for a candidate in the district for which his name appears on the roll. Many hundreds of seamen’s votes axe cast in Auckland electorates. The men off the ships are given the choice of any electorate fringing the waterfront; but in the main the men off the warships choose the Shore (Waitemata) and the men on the coastal and overseas vessels vote in Ceiktral — unless they have an established residence in Auckland. The task of the elector is a momentous and a significant one. It is recognised this year, perhaps more than ever, the part which the individual elector plays in the election of political representatives. So many close contests have been recorded in recent years that voters have been compelled to a realisation of the weight their vote is likely to have in a narrow fight. -