for a borough which has, or on the 18th August, 1882, A person otherwise qualified to be elected Councillor is disqualified in the following cases :— i. A person is disqualified to be elected or to be a County Councillor if he holds any office or place of profit in the gift of the County Council other than that of Chairman of the Council, or if he is Coroner for the county; and a person is disqualified to be elected or to be a Town Councillor if he holds any office or place of profit in the gift of the Town Council other than that of Mayor or Sheriff, or if he is an Elective Auditor for the borough. ii. A person is disqualified to be elected or to be a Town Councillor if he is in holy orders, or is the regular member of a dissenting congregation, but such a person may be a County Councillor. iii. A person is disqualified to be elected or to be a Any lease, sale, or purchase of any land, or any Any agreement for the loan of money. Any newspaper in which any advertisement relating to the affairs of the county or borough, or of the Any company which contracts with the Council for iv. An undischarged bankrupt is disqualified to be elected v. A person may lie under some other statutory disqualification, e.g., owing to offences against election law. : Preparation for election of The preliminary steps towards an election are as follows:- a Councillor, notice must be published as follows: 1 Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, sec. 39. Nomination of candidates. i. Notice of the election of a Town Councillor is signed by the Town Clerk, and affixed by him on the Town Hall, and also if the election is a ward election, in some conspicuous place in the ward.1 ii. Notice of the election of a County Councillor must be signed by the Returning Officer2 or his deputy, and affixed by him in some conspicuous place in the electoral division for which the election is about to take place. If the electoral division is co-extensive with or comprised in a borough, the notice is signed by the Town Clerk, and affixed by him in some conspicuous place in the electoral division. In this case, it might be advisable to affix a notice on the Town Hall, whether the Town Hall happens to be within the electoral division or not.3 After the notice of election is given, every candidate for election must be nominated; a proceeding in reference to which rules are contained in schedule 3, part II. to the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882. The application of these rules is extended to the cases of elections of County Councillors by the Local Government Act, 1888, sec. 75, subject to the following provisions: i. The Returning Officer or his deputy will perform the duties of the Mayor and of the Town Clerk; but where the election is for an electoral division co-extensive with, or wholly comprised in, a borough, the Mayor, or an Alderman appointed for that purpose, as the case may be, must act as deputy for the Returning Officer, in pursuance of a writ directed to him for that purpose from the Returning Officer; and, in that case, also, the Town Clerk must peform the duties assigned to him in the rules. ii. Some place fixed by the Returning Officer must, except where the election is in a borough, be substituted for the Town Clerk's office, and, as respects the hearing of objections to nomination papers, for the Town Hall; but such place must, if the electoral division is the whole or part of an urban sanitary district, be in that district, and in any other case such place must be in the electoral division or in an adjoining electoral division. iii. The period between nomination and election may be such period, not exceeding six days, as the Returning Officer may ñx. 1 Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, sec. 54. 2 As to Returning Officer, see next page. See post, p. 351. iv. Other obvious modifications must, of course, be made, such as the substitution of county elector for burgess, &c. Candidates being duly nominated the election takes place Election.1 as follows: If the number of valid nominations exceeds that of vacancies the Councillors are elected from among the persons nominated, in the manner explained below. If the number of valid nominations is the same as that of vacancies, the persons nominated are elected. If the number of valid nominations is less than that of vacancies, the persons nominated are elected, and those retiring Councillors who were highest at the poll at their elections, or, if the poll was equal, those who are selected for that purpose by the Chairman of the County Council, or Mayor, as the case may be, continue in their office to make up the required number. If there is no valid nomination the retiring Councillors remain in office. The last two provisions do not, of course, apply to the first election of County Councillors. At the first election an insufficient number of valid nominations will create a casual vacancy. But if there be from such a cause or any other cause a completely insufficient election, the Local Government Board will take steps to rectify matters.2 Officer.3 In the case of a contested election certain duties are Returning performed by the Returning Officer, who, in the case of an election of a County Councillor, is appointed by the County Council. The County Returning Officer may by writing under his hand appoint a deputy for the discharge of all or any of his duties. In the case of an election for an electoral division co-extensive with or wholly comprised in a borough the Mayor or an Alderman appointed for that purpose by the Town Council must act as deputy in pursuance of a writ directed to him from the County Returning Officer. In elections of Town Councillors the Mayor, or if the borough is divided into wards, an Alderman appointed by the Town Council, is Returning Officer. But if the Mayor is himself a candidate the Council may appoint a Returning Officer in his stead. At the first election of County Councillors the Sheriff will act as Returning Officer, but if he wishes to 1 Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, sec. 56. 2 Local Government Act, 1888, sec. 108. Expenses of Returning Officers.2 Expenses of borough elections.3 Polling districts.4 Division of parliamentary stand as a candidate the Quarter Sessions will, at his request, appoint some other person.1 The costs of holding elections of County Councillors, as far as they are not otherwise provided for, must be paid out of the county fund. The costs must not exceed those allowed by Part I. of the first schedule to the Parliamentary Election (Returning Officers) Act, 1875 (38 & 39 Vict. c. 84), as amended by the Parliamentary Elections (Returning Officers) Act, 1885 (48 & 49 Vict. c. 62), or by such scale as the County Council may, from time to time, frame. The Returning Officer must, within 21 days after the day on which the return is made of the persons elected, send a detailed account of his charges to the County Council from whom he claims payment, stating where the vouchers relating to the account may be seen. The Council may, at any time within one month from the receipt of the account, apply to the County Court for a taxation of the account; an appeal lies from the taxation of the County Court to the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court. In order that the Returning Officer may have the materials for making up his account in time, it is provided that all claims for work, &c., under any contract made by or on behalf of the Returning Officer for the purposes of an election must be made in a detailed form, in writing, within fourteen days after the day on which the return of the persons elected is made. Expenses of borough elections not otherwise provided for are payable out of the borough fund. As a preliminary step to a contested election, the various electoral areas are, where it is necessary, divided into polling districts. For the first election of County Councillors the Returning Officer may, if he thinks fit, divide any electoral division into polling districts, but the polling districts must be such that separate parts of the register of electors are made out for them. Boroughs are divided into polling districts by the Town Councils, and subsequent divisions of electoral divisions of counties into polling districts will be made by the County Councils. We may here indicate the provisions made for the division of parliamentary counties and boroughs into polling districts for the purposes of parliamentary elections. The term "parliamentary county" is defined in the Registration Act, polling districts. 1885, as meaning a county returning a member or members to serve in Parliament, county into 1 Local Government Act, 1888, sec. 103. 2 Local Government Act, 1888, secs. 75, 103. Parliamentary Elections (Returning Officers) Act, 1875, secs. 4-7. Parliamentary Elections (Returning Officers) Act, 1885. Parliamentary Elections (Returning Officers) Act (1875) Amendment Act, 1886 (4950 Vict. c. 57). 3 Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, sec. 140, and 5th schedule. 4 Local Government Act, 1888, sec. 103. Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, s. 64. Representation of the People Act, 1867, sec. 34. Corrupt and Illegal Practices Prevention Act, 1883 (46 & 47 Vict. c. 51), sec. 47. Registration Act, 1885, secs. 13, 14. and where a county is divided for the purpose of such return, as meaning a division of such county. Every parliamentary county within the meaning of this definition has been divided into polling districts by the Quarter Sessions. After the appointed day these districts may from time to time be altered by the County Council having authority for this purpose in that parliamentary county. County boroughs are considered for this purpose as situated in the counties of County Councils to which they are assigned in schedule 3 to the Local Government Act, 1888, and where a parliamentary county is wholly comprised within the county of one County Council in that sense it may be divided into polling districts by such County Council; but where a parliamentary county is situated in more than one county of a County Council it must be divided by the County Council of that county within which the greater part of it is situated. In the latter case, however, a Joint Committee may be appointed by the County Councils of the various counties into which the parliamentary county extends to take the division into consideration, and the County Council with authority to make the division may act on their report. The division of a parliamentary borough into polling districts is effected by the Division of following bodies : parliamentary borough into i. If any part of the parliamentary borough is co-extensive with or comprised polling districts,1 in a municipal borough-the Town Council. ii. If no part of the parliamentary borough is comprised in a municipal borough, but the parliamentary borough is situated wholly in one petty sessional division-the Justices of that division in Petty Sessions. iii. In other cases-the County Council. election. If a contested election is about to take place, the Returning Contested Officer, at least four days before, gives public notice of the situation, division, and allotment of polling places for taking the poll at the election, and of the description of persons entitled to vote at the election, and at each polling station. In the case of a ward election in a borough, this duty, however, falls on the Mayor instead of the Returning Officer of the ward. It will also be the duty of the Returning Officer, or, in the case of a ward election in a borough, of the Mayor, to provide suitable rooms for polling stations, and to provide every polling station with a ballot box, and ballot papers, and screened compartments for voting and other necessaries, and also with copies of such parts of the register of electors as contain the names of the electors allotted to vote at such polling station.2 The method of conducting the poll is laid down in the Ballot Act, 1872, as modified by the Municipal Corporations Corrupt and Illegal Practices Prevention Act, 1883, sec. 47. Local Government Act, 1888, sec. 3. 2 Ballot Act, 1872, sec. 8. Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, schedule 3, Part III. Local Government Act, 1888, sec. 75. |