Getting Ready for the Big Day

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 502, 3 November 1928, Page 17

Getting Ready for the Big Day

HEN, on November 14, Mr. John Citizen marks his choice of candidates o n the ballot paper, will he consider the work that has been necessary to make his

Tote easy and secure. Mosr. probably, being a casual elector, he will leave the polling booth with a genuine sigh of relief. “Politics? Voting? Lot of nonsense anyway” . . . Md he will leave it at that. But then again, Mr. William Citizen, who is mild and studious, may be having the time of his life on Election Day. He has been thrilled for weeks at the political meetings. He has simply revelled in the way the fellow next to him the other night badgered the candidate he disliked most. And so there are marked contrasts among the voters. The elections, too. provide a queer mixture of monotony

and excitement. A campaign for a teneral election may be likened to the Preparation for a major theatrical production. Electioneering demands a Political chorus, managers, "extras,” audience, stage-hands and, above all, 'rttics. Further, the actual interest lies behind the scenes.

In every electoral centre, officials have been concentrating for weeks Past on their huge election task.

Ask Mr. F. Evans, officer in charge Ihe electoral rolls in Auckland, °t the volume of extra business an * lion means. Mr. Evans has to keep utchfui guard over the election preuainaries in addition to the fulfilment hi* usual duties of registering I tths, deaths and marriages. He does y cheerfully, and controls a stafT of ''then who continually dive into a

maze of registration filing cabinets. Mr. Evans will assure a questioner that the making of an electoral roll is an undertaking requiring the strictest control and the utmost accuracy. Staffs working overtime .... observ-an-e of the regulations .... explanations to inquiring electors .... click- ! ing typewriters.... perspiring clerks .... cabinets crammed with registra- : tion forms .... hurried, yet careful, ; printing of the rolls .... more ex- '■ planations to inquiring electors . . . . And so the good work goes on.

What System Should Be In Mr. Evans’s offices, tucked snugly ! away in High Street, the card-filing room is an example of what official system can effect. Ranged along the walls are a series of cabinets. Nothing unusual about them to the casual gaze, but they contain accurate files of the registration cards of all the electors in the Auckland areas.

They are labelled simply: “Eden,” “Grey Lynn,” and so on. Their dull

framework shelters the registration forms of nearly 120,000 Auckland voters.

A perplexed old resident of Parnell enters the room. She is rather fearful that she may have to vote in Auckland East, after all. A neighbour did say something about a change in the boundaries. Would the clerk see what had been done with her card? And the clerk does. It is no trouble. Any card can be found in a space of seconds.

One thing is certain, New Zealand's laws have made voting as free from

interference as possible. If the average elector knew of all the regulations which protect him and his vote, he would certainly be amazed. Successive administrations have built up the law's so essential for ensuring accurate voting. There are heavy penalties for infringements. The offence of personation is guarded against fully.

Duplication of voting, voting in the name of some other person or the use of a fictitious name, come under the head of personation. The deputyreturning officers have the power to cause suspected offenders to be arrested. •legal practices under the Electoral Act include the making of wagers on election results. Bribery is outlined in seven clauses and the offence of “treating” can be lodged against a candidate or an hotel licensee who supplies meat, drink or entertainment

for the purpose of influencing voting. Fines of not more than £2O can be imposed on persons for influencing voters, printing or distributing mock ballot papers, or making public demonstrations during voting hours in reference to a poll. The fine limit is I £SO for the erasing or alteration of an official mark on a ballot paper, eomI mitting offences in regard to ballot ; papers and boxes, and publishing defamatory statements at election time. Even a brief - examination of the election regulations is a heavy busii ness. The requirements are as cumbersome as they are numerous. The officials whose duty it is to know the ins-and-outs of the law have all the rules at their finger tips. They need them. Inquiries from electors occupies a goo'd deal of the time of these men. Each day brings fresh inquiries.

Anxious youngsters who are having their first vote, vague young men. and older people who should know their election obligations better, swell

Written for THE SDN by D. C. S. TAYLOR.

the crow’ds that daily cluster round the officials.. The filing system is the chief exhibit of the roll makers. They are justly proud of it. Each cabinet contains upward of 20 drawers, and each drawer can hold well over 1,000 cards. No. There is no confusion when three or four John Smiths want to know if their registrations are in order. All the facts needed concerning a voter are recorded. If the voter is a seaman his card is coloured, appropriately, blue. And a glance through the Auckland files reveals a surprising number of blue cards.

Printing is a big item of expenditure on the electoral programme. Ballot papers are printed in thousands and packed off to the voting centres in bundles of 25 and 50 for convenience of handling.

Voting papers dealing with the licence-no licence issue are printed by the Government Printer in Wellington, but the electoral ballot papers are issued locally. Then there are lesser printing items in the form of sundry departmental papers. They all cost money, and provide an additional test to the smooth running of the controlling organisation. From a departmental point of view, the first concrete step in election-mak-ing is taken with the printing of the electoral rolls for each division. Then there are the thousands of tames appearing on the supplementary rolls, which make their bow to the officials after the writs for the elections are issued. The approaching election will be the first at W'hich the postal system of voting is being used. It is quite

distinct from absent voting. An absent voter, who is out of his own district on election day, can vote at any polling place upon making a declaration, at the booth, that he is entitled to vote in the district for which he registered. The postal system can be used where an elector is not within five miles of a booth, is ill, or is travelling under conditions precluding him from attending a booth. An application is made to the returning officer for a voting certificate and a ballot paper. Election officials have been explaining the distinction to many inquirers. The new voting provision, admirable as it is, has provided a prolific field for confusion among electors. Then there are the ballot boxes. Uninteresting affairs these. They are removed from careful storage, and

Army of Workers Prepares for The Poll on November 14 . . . Bewildered Citizens Face Registrar . . . System Simplifies Compilation of Rolls ... A Few Boundary Problems.

with due suprvision, for the serious business of taking the electors' votes. The procedure savours of the removal of a prisoner to a court of law. There is a similar watchfulness. Auckland’s ballot boxes have been lodged for some time within very few feet of the bustle of Queen Street, in a safe portion of the Government Insurance Building. Record Registration Even the officials are stirred to interest at the announcement of the new totals of electors. This year they were inundated with new names for the rolls in Auckland's nine elect-

orates. A record for registration in New Zealand’s largest city’ was made. Clerks who juggled with the additional piles of cards felt a glow of satisfaction.

Preliminary returns for the numbers of voters in Auckland gave the total for the nine electorates at 119,649. In 1925, the total was 102,112. The elec-tion-makers were faced with a heavy problem in preparing the supplementary rolls. Names on these accounted for over 26,000 of the increase of about 31,000 voters in Auckland since the 1925 elections.

As soon as the rolls close, .the returning officers enter the field. They spend busy hours arranging all the niceties for “voting time.” No relaxation for them. They form a conscientious and hard-working section of the thousands employed throughout New Zealand in the great election mill.

The nine men who have the responsibility of watching over the r 61 ing in Auckland are:—Messrs. G. C. Parker (Auckland East), E. S. Molony iAuck land Central), H. J. Copping (Eden), T. Crawford (Auckland Wesr.i, \V. M. Lovell (Parnell), J. Hay (Waitemata), J. F. Barrett (Roskill), E. W. J. Bowden (Auckland Suburbs), and J. A. Foster (Grey Lynn). Their task is no light one. To keep rigid charge of a public trust —and the departmental conception of an elector’s vote is that it is a trust —is an office calling for scrupulous care. There are scrutineers, v’-.o come under the control of the , ; turning officers. Each candidate, of course, has the right to appoint a scrutineer. Every voting paper must be in undoubt-

ed order, and here the indifference of the voter in the important business in hand can be the cause of despair to the officials. Returning officers have decided views on the capabilities of some voters! But. on the w-hole, there is a measure of praise for the average New Zealand elector from returning officers generally. An inquirer learns that the ordinary New Zealander is usually deliberate and logical. More so, possibly, than his Australian and English cousins. But he has his faults, of course. For instance, there seems no earthly reason for the appearance of a Grey Lynn elector in Parnell, requesting to record an absentee vote. Perhaps he could explain, if necessary, but the mildly despairing air of the harassed officials may be excused. Mr. Parker, returning officer for Auckland East and Chief-Postmaster at the Shortland Street Post Office, finds it hard to understand why so many people take genuine trouble to j enroll, yet neglect to vote. For j example, he will point out, in one elec-j torate roughly 10,000 voted last election. About 3,000 had enrolled but had

“Why the others don’t vote, I cannot discover,” Mr. Parker says. “One explanation, I suppose, is that they are remarkably casual.” Boundary Niceties New Zealand’s electoral boundaries reach from the mainland to unexpected and unusual places. To go far afield from Auckland, the Lyttelton electoral district embraces the Chatham Islands. The islanders are in a unique position, however. They vote in a licensing area of their own, but the Maori settlers, who form a considerable portion of the population, vote in the Western Maori electorate. This is in the North Island. An explanation for this arrangement is that the Chatham Maori tribes

sprang from tile western bribes of the North Island. Then, nearer home, the Auckland East division includes Waiheke and smaller Gull islands. Polling booths are placed on the islands, and some o£ the candidates make minor sea voyj ages to address the electors. Great Barrier and Tiri are in the Auckland West electorate, and his Majesty’s sailors on the warships at Devonport are voters in the Waitemata district. Apart from the Government’s arrangements, the parties themselves are not Idle. Votes are precious, and,

to secure these, the organisations of the Reform, Labour, and United parties are planned on an impressive scale. Candidates’ campaigns have to be mapped out, party propaganda prepared, large office staffs controlled, and canvassers sent hot-foot into the mass of electors. A party organiser is confronted continually with the problems of securing support, guarding candidates’ interests, and probing whole districts for votes. It is an absorbing business. The candidates themselves have a ready eye for the necessity of organisa-

tion. They invariably surround themselves with more or less energetic committeemen, and, up to Election Day, the political aspirant’s life is as "ready-made” for him as the election itself.

To enter the committee rooms of a party as a mere observer is to receive a distinct Impression that one is out of place. And, usually, the casual observer Is. A party’s headquarters are very obviously no place for those who are not part and parcel of the general scheme. If one wants to be really friendly with party organisers, under-organiser, advisers, canvassers and all the party workers of rather obscure status, one has to profess open admiration of the party’s candidates. And a word of praise for the efficiency of the organ-

isation as a whole helps, too. Strange, but these promoters of party interests are invariably genuine in their enthusiasm over their own candidates. Given encouragement, they will lean back in their chairs, relax from hard toil, and propound the virtues of “the man who is going to take Grey Lynn completely by surprise.” A few minutes of this, and thej will descend abruptly from the heights of enthusiasm and assure the bewildered inquirer that they really haven’t the time to discuss elections. These organisers are very important men. Catch them at work on a busy morning and this is obvious. The candidates in all the electorates seem to have come to the committee rooms by arrangement. They are in a frantic hurry, and yet they are all anxious to know how the other fellow

is doing in his electorate. And. in the midst of this hurly-burly, the organisers work. Telephone calls, hurried inquiries from candidates, information for canvassers, more information for members of the public, who are eager to learn about party policies—all is grist that comes to the organisers’ mill. The committee rooms? They vary. Elaborate or untidy, they all give the one important impression of speed and organisation. And then .... The Day. Shuffling crowds cluster round the booths.

Most voters strive to maintain the correct air of sublime, confident secrecy. And yet, is there one of them who would not enjoy shouting out his selection of candidates for all the world to hear? He has done the right thing, of course. So months of intense preparations by thousands of Government and party employees have their climax. A few hours’ polling and the main phase of the elections is over. It seems almost trivial after the expensive, exhaustive preparation of months.