Page:Thomas Hare - The Election of Representatives, parliamentary and municipal.djvu/244

 It is unnecessary to repeat the clause formerly introduced, for the verification of the declared results of the poll, and for the preservation of, and means of reference to the voting papers subsequent to the election. Provisions for all these purposes are to be found in the rules appended to the Ballot Act. The secrecy of the vote now renders most of the suggestions on this point, in the preceding editions, inapplicable.

It is proper finally to provide for the possibility of a candidate being elected by a sufficient number of voters to make up the quota, and who yet may not be in a position on the poll of any particular constituency to entitle him to require that the returning officer shall return him as elected by it. Suppose, for example, that there were 700 different constituencies, and a candidate had three votes in every constituency, he might have the quota, or a comparative majority, but not a majority in any place. The supposed state of things is of course highly improbable, but there ought to be no possible defect in the operation of machinery designed to act perpetually, and under all circumstances. If any cases should arise, such as has been supposed, it may be left to be dealt with by the House, upon a form of proceeding which the candidate, or any of the electors interested, may be allowed to imitate.