BALLOT (AUSTRALIAN COLONIES)

 PAPERS
Relative to
THE OPERATION OF
THE
SYSTEM OF THE BALLOT IN THE COLONIES.

E.H. Knatchbull-Hugessen.
Colonial Office,
14 June 1871

No.1.

Copy of CIRCULAR to all Colonies in which the System of the Ballot is in Operation.
Downing Street ,
30 September 1870.

Sir,

Her Majesty’s Government are anxious, before the meeting of Parliament, to obtain information respecting the advantages or disadvantages of the systems of ballot in operation in some of Her Majesty’s Colonies; and I have to request that you will furnish me with a description in detain of the mode in which votes are given and received in the Colony under your Government, and your opinion as to the working of that mode of voting.

I observe that in South Australia the system is one of absolute secrecy, i.e., that the voter on establishing his claim to vote receives a voting card bearing no number or mark, and therefore incapable of identification should the voter be subsequently found to have been guilty of corruption or personation. On the other hand, in Victoria , the voter receives a card which bears a number corresponding with his number on the electoral roll, and if a scrutiny should be found necessary the vote which has been given by a bribed or personated voter can be struck off.

I should particularly wish to know what advantages or disadvantages have been found to result from these two systems; whether, on the one hand, the absolute secrecy has been found to encourage bribery or personation; and if not, by what precautions that result has been prevented, and whether on the other hand the power of identification of the vote has been used for purposes not contemplated by the law, and has tended to diminish the security which it was intended that the system of secret voting should give to the voter.

There are on or two minor points on which Her Majesty’s Government would be glad to receive information.

Is any, and, if so, what provision is made for the case of voters who cannot read, and are therefore unable to mark their cards or papers?

Is it found desirable that the votes should, at the close of the poll, be counted at the various polling places, or that the ballot boxes should be convey to the returning officer and counted by him?

Has any difficulty been found in securing the services of competent and trustworthy deputy returning officers?

What are the provisions as to the payment of the necessary expenses of the election?

Have any contrivances been successfully adopted of evading the check on bribery which the ballot is calculated to afford?

Have any practical difficulties arisen in the working of the electoral system, and, if so, what remedies have been adopted?

I shall be glad to receive your reply to this circular as soon as you can furnish the information, and in such a form as may be conveniently laid before Parliament.

I have, &c.,

(signed)       KIMBERLY.

 Papers relative to the ballot system in the Australian colonies.

Enclosure in No. 3.

 MINUTE upon the CIRCULAR DESPATCH of the Right Honourable

The Secretary of State, dated 30^th September 1870.

BEFORE proceeding to make any observations upon the working of the Electoral Act of 1858, it seems to be desirable to draw attention to the documents appended to this Minute, viz:-

1.     The Electoral Act itself.

2.     The Instructions to the Collectors of the Electoral Lists.

3.     The Instructions by which the Returning Officers, Presiding Officers, and Poll Clerks are guided in the performance of their duties.

4.     A Memorandum prepared at my request by an intelligent and experienced returning officer, explaining in detail the mode in which he, and it may be presumed, returning officers generally, carry out the proceedings at elections under the Act.

The Act has now been in force for 12 years, and has not been amended.  Its operation has been considered, upon the whole, satisfactory; but the Victorian Act is said to be in some respects an improvement upon it, or rather, I should perhaps say, that the amendments which have been made in Victoria have checked some evils which are changed against the working of the New South Wales Act.

With regard to the secret voting there can be no doubt whatever that it has effectually prevented bribery, and that it has also superseded the canvassing for votes.  In some few instances where intense anxiety regarding a seat is felt, or where there is very keen rivalry, the candidates, unwilling to neglect any means of obtaining support, do canvass, but its futility is now generally admitted. It is found that promises, or what are understood to be such, have no binding effect, and it is gradually being discontinued.

Personation is not, however, put down.  It is said that in regard to this offence, the Victorian system is better than ours.  That it is so often attempted in New South Wales , arises in some degree from the lax way in which the returning and presiding officers deal with those who are detected in attempting to commit fraud.  There is also an apparent unwillingness to prosecute offenders;  the feeling being very prevalent that after the election is over all animosity should cease, and possibly from the knowledge that on both sides the friends of the candidates are open to the charge.  The evil is a serious one, and I have no doubt that our Legislature will have to provide more effective machinery for detecting and punishing those who are guilty of committing the offence.  Opinions vary considerably as to what that machinery should be.  It may be that the Victorian system, as stated in the Despatch, has been found efficient.  I should be sorry to see any alteration in the law which would destroy the secrecy of the vote given by ballot, the operation of which has been in various ways very beneficial.

The mode in which the votes of those who cannot read or write are taken, is described in the Memorandum of the returning officer.  I have never heard of any dissatisfaction at the manner in which that portion of the Act applicable to their case is worked.

The system of counting the votes at the close of the poll, and sending the ballot papers at once to the returning officer, meets with approval.  No ill effect has been caused by it.  The returning officer adopts the lists of the respective presiding officer.

No serious difficulty has been felt in obtaining the services of competent and trustworthy deputies by the returning officer.

The expenses of elections are defrayed out of a fund appropriated by Parliament for the object, the disbursing of which is intrusted to the Executive Government.  No remuneration has hitherto been paid to the returning officers, but it has been found necessary to allow a charge of moderate amount to deputies.  The expenses are occasionally referred for the report and revision of the Auditor General.  Having been the Minister charges with the administration of this branch of the public service, I can testify that upon the whole the returning and presiding officers cheerfully perform their duties with looking for compensation in the same spirit that magistrates and municipal officers undertake their duties.

The Electoral Act was originally framed and carried through Parliament by myself, and as I shall be in London by the middle of April, I shall be glad to give any personal assistance in the preparation of a measure, should it be determined to introduce a Bill into the Imperial Parliament.

I should, perhaps, not omit the mention of a short Act passed in 1866, to authorise the employment of the police in collecting the electoral lists.

(Signed)  Charles Cowper.