Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/306

290 makes before the officer a declaration of inability to read, or when the poll is on a Saturday declares himself a Jew, the officer causes the paper to be marked as the voter directs, and keeps a record of the transaction. A. voter who claims to vote after another has voted in respect of the same qualification, obtains a (green) paper which is not placed in the box, but preserved apart as a &quot; tendered &quot; paper. must, however, declare his identity, and that he has not already voted. The presiding officer, at the close of the poll, has to account to the returning officer for the papers entrusted to him, the number being made up by (1) papers in the box, (2) spoiled papers, (3) unused papers, and (4) tendered papers. During the voting (for which schoolrooms and othor public rooms are available, and for which^a separate compartment must be provided for every 150 electors entitled to vote at a station) agents of candidates are allowed to be present in the polling-station, but they, as well as the officials, are sworn to secrecy as regards who have voted, and for whom ; and they are prohibited from interfering with the voter, inducing him to show his vote, or attempting to ascertain the number on the back of the paper. These agents are also present with the returning officer when he counts the papers and the votes, rejecting those papers (1), which want the official mark on the back ; (2), on which votes are given for more candidates than the voter is entitled to vote for ; (3), on which anything except the number on the back is marked or written by which the voter can be identified ; (4), which are unmarked, or so marked that it is uncertain for v,-hom the vote is given. The counted and rejected papers, and also the &quot; tendered&quot; papers, counterfoils, and marked register (which have not been opened), are, in parliamentary elections, transmitted by the returning officer to the clerk of the Crown in Chancery in England, or the sheriff-clerk in Scotland, who destroys them at the end of one year, unless otherwise directed by an order of the House of Commons, or of some court having jurisdiction in election petitions. Such petitions either simply dispute the accuracy of the return on the ground of miscounting, or wrongous rejection or wrongous admission of papers, in which case the court examines the counted and rejected papers; or make allegations of corruption, &c., on which it may be necessary to refer to the marked counterfoils and ascertain how bribed voters have voted. Since the elections of 1874 much discontent has been expressed, because judges have rejected papers with trifling (perhaps accidental) marks other than the X upon them, and because elections have been lost through the failure of the officer to stamp the papers. For this purpose the use has been suggested of a perforating instead of an embossing stamp, while a dark ground paper with white voting-spaces would make misplaced votes im possible. The Ballot Act has introduced several new offences, such as forging or fraudulently defacing or destroying a paper or the official mark ; supplying a paper without due authority; fraudulently putting into the box a non-official paper; fraudulently taking a paper out of the station without due authority; destroying, taking, opening, or otherwise interfering with a box or packet of papers then in use for election purposes. These offences, and attempts to commit them, are punishable in the case of officers and clerks with imprisonment for two years, with or without hard labour. In other cases the term of imprisonment is six months. The ballot being thus un fait accompli in the United Kingdom, it is now scarcely necessary to indicate the arguments by which it was supported and opposed. It has been f?und possible to render voting perfectly secrel and to provide for a scrutiny. It would be foolish to expect that secret voting will be a perfect security for independent noting. Bribery, treating, and intimidation continue to e practised, but with diminished effect. Bribery may still be made conditional on the briber s success, but the Act is felt to be an expression of national opinion against all interference with individual judgment. The argument that the franchise is a public trust, to the exercise of which a public responsibility should attach, would be conclusive if the - selfish partialities&quot; of the voter were the chief evil. The ballot was declared to lead to universal hypocrisy and deception; and Sydney Smith spoke of &quot; voters, in dominos, oing to the poll in sedan-chairs with closely-drawn urtains.&quot; The observed effect of a secret ballot is, however, radually to exterminate undue influence and canvassing ; and when the necessity for secrecy is removed, votes are not kept secret. The alarm of &quot; the Confessional &quot; seems to be unfounded, as a Catholic penitent is not bound to confess his vote, and if he did so, it would be a crime iu the confessor to divulge it.

The ballot is used very largely in the British Colonies, and on the Continent. In South Australia, under the Australia Constitution Act of 1856 and the Electoral Act of 1858, both the Legislative Council and the House of Assembly are elected by manhood suffrage under the ballot, the returning officer putting his initials on the voting card, which the voter is directed, under pain of nullity, to fold so that the officer may not see the vote which is indicated by a cross. The cards are destroyed when the poll is announced ; and thus personation, though proved against certain voters for the purpose of punishing them, would not void an election, for there can be no scrutiny before the Court of Disputed Keturns. Canvassing has almost disappeared. In Victoria, under the Electoral Act of 1865 (29 Viet. c. 279), both the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly are elected practically by manhood suffrage under the ballot, which was introduced in 1856. The officer adds to his initials a number corresponding to the voter s number on the register, and the cards are pre served till after the time for petitioning the Committee of Elections and Qualifications has expired, so that a scrutiny may take place of challenged votes. The important Eoad Boards under the Local Government Consolidation Act of 1869 are also elected by ballot. In Tasmania the chief peculiarity is that (as in South Australia) the card is not put directly by the voter into the box, but handed to the officer who puts it there (this being thought a security against double voting or voting with a non-official card, and also against the voter carrying away his card) ; here also the cards are destroyed immediately, while in New South Wales, where, as in Victoria, the voting is by scoring out and not by a cross, the cards are kept for five years. The vigorous municipal boards of these colonies are also elected by ballot, which has diminished expense and undue influence very greatly, but has not produced compbte secrecy of voting.

In France, where from 1840 to 1845 the ballot, or France. scrutin, had been used for deliberative voting in the Chamber of Deputies, its use in elections to the Corps Legislatif was carefully regulated at the beginning of the Second Empire by the Organic Decree of 2d February 1852. Under this law the voting was superintended by a bureau consisting of the deputy returning officer (called president of the section), four unpaid assessors selected from the constituency, and a secretary. Each voter pre sents a polling card, with his designation, date of birth, and signature (to secure identity), which he has previously got at the Mairie. This the president mutilates, and the vote is then recorded by a &quot; bulletin,&quot; which is not official, but is generally printed with a candidate s name, and given to the voter by an agent outside, the only conditions being that the bulletin shall be &quot; sur papier blanc, sans sigues exterieurs, et prepare&quot; en dehors de 1 assemble e.&quot; The 