THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 1912. VOTING BY POST.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10584, 15 March 1912, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 1912. VOTING BY POST.

A suggestion that lias something to recommend it has been made oy a correspondent of a southern contemporary, i.e., that the present fysUm of voting at the polling booth be replaced by a system of voting through the post. While it has to be admitted that voting by ballot is a very great advance upon the system of open voting - that prevailed forty or fifty years ago, voting by bal'ot represents the only progress we have made in ascertaining the will of the people, apart from the extension of the franchise and the equalisation 1 of the representation, .since the days when bribery and intimidation were inevitable accompaniments of every contested Parliamentary election. The elector still has to make his way to a x>ohi"g 'booth on a certain day between certain hours, regardless of his health and social and business engagements, and he iStill has to encounter outside the booth (the army of touts'.and partisans that the ballot was intended to extinguish.' Voting by post would not entirely remove the evils of the (present system, but it would go some distance in the direction of .minimising them. If every elector on the completion of his registration were provided with a certificate entitling him to record his vote at any Post Office within the

district during the week that the poll might -be kept open there would bo very few opportunities for the exercise of undue' influence by the employment of canvassers and motorcar's and the expenditure of money in other directions. The would take his certificate to the officer in charge of the Post Office and exchange it for a ballot paper. Then he would mark the"paper as he wished, and drop it into a special mailbox which would be forwarded to the returning officer afc the close of the poll. There would, of course, be a danger of personation and plural voting in this system, but this would be minimised if reasonable precautions were taken. 'One of the chief advantages of voting by post would be that it would reduce the cost of elections by at least one-half, and at the same time assure a larger proportion of the electors voting and a fewer number being influenced hy paid agents. The idea is one which is worthy of consideration, and it will doubtless appeal to a considerable section of the community.