TWO FEET OF NAMES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 649, 29 April 1929, Page 1

TWO FEET OF NAMES

CITY COUNCIL ASPIRANTS FORMIDABLE LIST With the 1929 Municipal Elections on the day after to-morrow there is no busier man in Auckland than the city returning officer, Mr. P. F. Notley, and no body of officials is harder put to it than the staff of his office. So formidable is the list of candidates for the City Council —67 are desiring to fill 21 chairs —that electors will he given a ballot-paper two feet long and five inches wide. A total of 40,000 such papers will be available for the 47,795 people on the rolls, hut such is the Inevitable apathy of several thousands of electors that there is no possibility of a shortage. Beside the regiment offering for the council there are four candidates for the City Mayoralty, 15 for the five city seats on the Hospital Board, and 10 for the four city seats on the Harbour Board. The polling hours will be from 9 a.m. to 7 .p.m. To cope with the work, a total staff of 637 has been engaged. These include 190 deputy returning officers, 187 poll clerks and 260 counters. They will draw an aggregate of about £BSO for their services, and the total cost of the city poll Is expected to he about £3,000. Where unemployed men with the requisite qualifications have applied for engagement, Mr. Notley has done his best to place them. COUNTING THE VOTES Although ts.e counting of votes is necessarily a harassing operation and one demanding the greatest care, Mr. Notley hopes to have the result of the four-cornered Mayoral contest available about 9 p.m. on Wednesday evening.. The counting of the votes cast for the City Council candidates should be accomplished by 2 a.m. on Thursday. The work of the returning officer’s staff will be greatly facilitated it voters make themselves acquainted with the procedure at the booths. The most important point, giving directions as to how to vote, will be printed on the voting papers as follows: “The voter is to leave untouched the names of the candidate or candidates for whom he desires to vote, and to draw a line through the names of the candidate or candidates for whom he does not desire to vote.” All persons over the age of 21 whose names are on the roll are entitled to vote, Irrespective of whether they are ratepayers, residents or occupiers. A vote by declaration will be allowed by the chief returning officer only if the omission of the name from the roll is purely an error of compilation. Even if a declaration form is handed to a person demanding one, it does not necessarily follow that the vote will be allowed when It is examined at the Town Hall.