MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS. ballot papers were rejected by me as invalid under the following heads, namely: Want of official mark Voting for more candidates than entitled to That the number of ordinary ballot papers taken out of the ballot boxes was **The returning officer may report any special circumstances connected with the election, and he will hand his report to the town clerk, together with all documents and things connected with this election. The following system is suggested for the guidance of returning officers in counting the votes: The appointment of officers to attend the counting of the votes rests with the mayor, who will exercise his discretion as to the staff required for the purpose. (Third Schedule, Part III., 3.) It is hardly necessary to say that the larger the staff the more quickly the result of the election will be ascertained. It seems very desirable that the proceedings should not be protracted any longer than necessary. The mayor will doubtless be guided to a considerable extent as to the number of officers to be appointed by the number of candidates nominated and the vigour with which the election has been carried on. Where there is only one vacancy to be filled, it is not necessary to enumerate the votes given for each candidate on counting sheets. The papers should be placed in heaps or batches for each candidate, and simply counted. In an ordinary November election in a borough divided into wards, where two candidates are required and four arc nominated, if the candidates are put forward in pairs, Duties of the counting of the votes would be comparatively easy, returning and doubtless two persons could count 500 ballot papers officer. in an hour. The time occupied would, however, be very much more if each candidate stood on his own merits, and the votes were split amongst the candidates in various ways. In such a case it would be necessary to enumerate each vote in the following method: The rooms in which the ballot papers are to be counted should be of ample size to accommodate the counting officers and agents and the candidates without any overcrowding. Tables should be placed in convenient positions in the room, and sufficient space should be allowed between the tables to pass and repass. The tables should be supplied with pens, ink, and blotting-paper. The counting officers should work in pairs, and should be placed at the separate tables side by side. Each pair of counting officers should sit at a distance of six feet at the least from any other pair, so that they may not interrupt each other's proceedings. The counting officers being seated at the tables, the returning officer, or his assistant, should give to one in each pair of officers a number of ballot papers;—a counting or enumerating sheet, and two ordinary files should be supplied. One file should have attached to it a card with the word "disputed" printed thereon. One officer should then take the ballot papers, one by one, and call over the names of the candidates for whom the votes are marked, and the other officer should record the votes on the counting sheet. As soon as a ballot paper has been thus dealt with, the officer will put it face upwards on the file for undisputed ballot papers. In case the officer comes to a ballot paper (1.) Not marked with the official mark; or (2.) Upon which more votes are given than a voter is (3.) Upon which is any writing or mark by which the Duties of returning officer. (4.) Which is unmarked, or is uncertain as to the persons for whom the votes are given, He should put such ballot paper on the file marked disputed." 66 If any agent object to a ballot paper the officer should put it on the file for disputed ballot papers, for the decision of the returning officer. The returning officer should not upon any pretence whatever allow a candidate or any agent to meddle with the ballot papers or interfere with the counting officers in their duties. The returning officer should have one officer personally attending on him during the counting. Such officer should have charge of the box containing the whole of the ballot papers, and should see that no person other than the returning officer takes any ballot papers therefrom. He should also have the custody of the counting or enumerating sheets. The counting or enumerating sheets should be numbered consecutively, and the greatest care should be taken that all sheets issued are returned. He should be provided with a register in which should be recorded the name of every person entrusted with a counting sheet, and the number of such sheet. As often as the counting or enumeration sheets are filled and cast up, the counting officer should take the same to the returning officer's assistant, who will receive the same and mark them off in the register as returned, and give out other sheets in their stead, recording the same in the register as before mentioned. When the counting officer's file is full, or when the votes on his ballot papers are all counted, they (with the exception of the disputed ballot papers) should be delivered to the returning officer's assistant, who should place them in a box separate from the ballot papers which have not been enumerated. The counting officers should retain the disputed ballot papers until the whole of the undisputed votes have been counted. The officers who have cast the sheets should verify the casting by signing their names at the foot thereof. Duties of returning The casting should be checked by an independent clerk, officer. who should also sign his name at the foot of the counting or enumerating sheet. If an error is detected in casting the sheet, it should be at once taken to the returning officer, who should make such corrections as may be necessary, and place his initials against the alteration. The returning officer's assistant should be provided with a sheet in the same form as the enumerating sheets, with a colum on the left hand side in which should be written consecutive numbers. This sheet should be called the summary of votes recorded." As each counting or enumerating sheet is returned to the returning officer's assistant he should enter on the summary (on the line corresponding in number with the counting or enumerating sheet) the total number of votes recorded for each candidate appearing on each enumerating sheet, and so on until the whole have been recorded. As the totals of each enumerating sheet are transferred to the summary the enumerating sheets should be signed by the returning officer's assistant and then filed. The returning officer should then examine the entries made on the "summary by his assistant, so as to ascertain that the totals of the several enumerating sheets have been correctly transferred to the summary, and should sign the same accordingly. دو 3. The Duties of the Returning Officer as to the Rejection of Invalid Ballot Papers. This is a subject with respect to which much is left to the judgment and discretion of the returning officer. Some diversity in practice will necessarily follow, and a returning officer will probably find it desirable, as tending to save himself from interruption in his duties, if he declares, before he begins to examine the ballot papers which have been set aside for his decision, substantially what principle he intends to follow in allowing and disallowing votes. Duties of returning officer. The provisions of the Ballot Act, 1872, relating to this subject are as follows: By sect. 2 any ballot paper which does not bear on its back the official mark, or on which anything except the prescribed number on the back is written or marked by which the voter can be identified, shall be void and not counted. By sect. 62 (3), which enacts that if the election of elective auditors and that of revising assessors are held at the same time, one voting paper only shall be used by any person voting, the names of the candidates for the respective offices being therein separate and distinguished, so as to show the office for which each is a candidate, it is provided that in counting the votes every such ballot paper shall be deemed to be a separate ballot paper in respect of each office, and that any objections thereto shall be considered and dealt with accordingly. By Rule 36 of the Ballot Act, 1872, as varied by Rule 64, and The Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, the returning officer is to report to the town clerk the number of ballot papers rejected and not counted by him under the several heads of (1.) Want of official mark. (2.) Voting for more candidates than entitled to. (4.) Unmarked or void for uncertainty. (1.) As to the want of the official mark. If the presiding officers and their assistants do their duty no question will arise for the returning officer under this head. If, however, any ballot papers should be found to lack the official mark, the returning officer will have no alternative but to reject them. (2.) Voting for more candidates than entitled to. Ballot papers disqualified under this head are for the most part obviously bad upon the face of them. It |