Page:Thomas Hare - The Election of Representatives, parliamentary and municipal.djvu/211

 written narrative, the process of operation, every sort of machinery has an appearance of complexity. This would be immediately felt by any one who should endeavour, in words, to explain to another, who had not seen it, the operation of Jacquard's loom, or of the steam engine. An attempt is, however, made to bring the proceedings of an election of representatives,—such as it ought to be amongst an intelligent and free people in a civilized age,—as vividly as possible before the eyes of every reader.

We have reached the stage of the proceeding at which the voting papers,—some containing many and some few names, or a single name, have been taken at the polling places. These, with the tabular books of the polling clerks, are collected at the town or county hall, or other central place, where the returning officer presides. If there should be several polling places, they must be severally distinguished by a name or mark,—as by letters A, B, &c., so that, in sorting the voting papers, those received at the several polling places be always taken in consecutive order. In large constituencies, where the town hall or other chief point of concentration is ready of access from all the polling places, it would be desirable that the votes and tabular books should be collected several times during the day, that the process of sorting may be going on contemporaneously with the other business of the election. In such constituencies, it will soon be found that favourite candidates have votes exceeding in number their required quota, and which votes will therefore become available for the next candidate (if any) named in the voting papers.

It is probable that the voting papers will sometimes contain the name of a person on the gazetted lists, who has not offered himself as a candidate for the particular constituency to which the duties of the returning officer exclusively refer, but whom, notwithstanding the voter has, by selecting for the