boroughs. CHAP. III. also with regard to boroughs, no particular number of polling stations is specified as being necessary. The Returning Officer is merely required to proIn English vide a sufficient number.' If, however, a borough in England has been divided into polling districts by the local authority,2 each district must have at least one polling station; and where a borough comprises two or more towns, each town must have its polling station. But the discretion of the Returning Officer as to providing more than one polling station for each district is limited by the provision of 2 Will. IV. c. 45, s. 71, which is left unrepealed by the Ballot Act, and which enacts that the expense to be incurred for any booth or booths' to be erected for any parish, district, or part of any city or borough, shall not exceed the sum of £25 in respect of any one such parish, district, or part. The same rule as to hiring a building, if possible, instead of erecting a booth, applies as in English county elections, and also the rule about taking the poll in inns.7 Returning for expenses 6 Such are the rules by which the Returning Officer liable Officer will be guided in deciding as to the number of booths, if and situation of the polling stations, and as to a poll be not the other preparations for taking the poll. In demanded. case he should feel uncertain as to the ultimate necessity of a poll, he may naturally feel reluctant to make any further preparation for the election than publishing the notice of election, as above 1 Ballot Act, rule 15, App. civ., and ante, p. 23. 2 30 & 31 Vict. c. 102, s. 34, App. lxix., and Ballot Act, s. 5, App. lxxxvii., ante, p. 38. 330 & 31 Vict. c. 102, s. 34, App. Ixix. 4 By s. 15 of the Ballot Act the word "polling station to be read for "booth" in all previous enactments. is 5 The meaning of the words "district or part was formerly somewhat doubtful, see Russell's treatise on the Reform Act, 98, and Rogers, ed. 10, p. 249. This doubt is now set at rest by the enactment of s. 5 of the Ballot Act. 630 & 31 Vict., c. 102, s. 37, App. lxx., ante, p. 24. described, and providing nomination papers. For, CHAP. III. if he does not obtain an indemnity from the proposed candidates, he will be personally liable for the expense of any further preparations for a contest, unless a contest actually takes place and a poll becomes necessary. His liability in this respect is, in fact, determined by precisely the same considerations as those which determine a Sheriff's liability in a county election.1 rations for a Let it, however, next be supposed that a contest Full prepais imminent, and that the Returning Officer contest. desires to make full preparations for it. It has already been shown what, in English boroughs, in the absence of any arrangement with the candidates, are the rules for determining, and notifying, the number and situation of the polling stations, and for regulating their cost. It is, however, in English borough elections, competent to the candidates to authorise the Returning Officer, by a direct contract with him, and at their own expense, to exceed the statutory limits in the three last particulars.3 4 5 be affixed to station. Supposing then, that the above preparations Names of have been made, the Returning Officer must, as in parishes to county elections, then give public notice of the each polling situation of the various polling stations, and of the description of voters entitled to vote at each, and of the mode in which electors are to vote, and in all borough elections in England, he must, in addition to giving public notice, cause to be affixed upon the most conspicuous part of each polling station, the names of "the parishes, districts, and parts," for the electors of which it is allotted. Further, each of such polling stations must be provided, as before explained,' with ballot boxes, ballot papers, pencils to mark the ballot 2 Ante, p. 40. 3 2 Will. IV. c. 45, s. 71, App. xxi. 1 Ante, p. 29. 4 Ante, p. 28. 5 Ballot Act, rule 19, App. cv. 6 lb. s. 68, App. xx. 7 Ante, p. 28. CHAP. III. papers with, stamping instruments, copies of the register, forms of directions for the guidance of the voters in voting, and sealing-wax. Returning staff. Must con duct election in person. Otherwise his staff resembles that of the Sheriff. Vacancy in post of Officer between writ and elec tion. The next duty of the Returning Officer is to appoint his staff. In borough elections, the Returning Officer must conduct the election in person, for he is not, like the Sheriff,' entitled in any case to appoint a Deputy who may relieve him altogether of the duty of superintending the election. But in other respects, the officers to be appointed by him are the same, and subject to the same enactments, as in the case of the Sheriff's staff in county elections.2 3 It only remains to consider the case of a Returning vacancy in the post of a Returning Officer, after his receiving the writ, and before the election. The same question here arises as in the case of a vacancy occurring in the shrievalty, during the same period, in a county election-namely, whether a new writ is necessary. It is observable that, in the Dartmouth case, decided at a time when the Returning Officer acted under the Sheriff's precept, instead of under the writ, the House declined to direct the Sheriff how to proceed in the matter.1 Perhaps the statute already referred to," which provides, as to English boroughs, for the case of the Returning Officer's post being vacant when the writ is issued, may be construed so as to reach the case of a vacancy occurring after the writ has been received by him. If so, no new writ would be necessary for an English borough, but the Sheriff of the shire would become Returning Officer of the borough, pro hac vice. A doubt may, perhaps be raised 1 Ante, p. 36. 2 Ante, p. 30. 4 13 Com. J. 101. 5 17 & 18 Vict. c. 57, App. li. ante, p. 13. As to boroughs under the Municipal Corporations Act, see 5 & 6 Will. IV. c. 76, s. 57, App. xxx. on this head in consequence of the words of CHAP. III. the preamble, which states that the statute is meant to meet the case of "there being no person qualified to receive" the writ. But there seems to be no good reason for restricting the operations of the Act to that one contingency. Having thus explained the rules which regulate the preparations for all elections, in whatever part of the United Kingdom the county or borough may be, and having pointed out the peculiarities relating to elections in England, we now proceed to explain the formalities which are peculiar to Scotch and Irish elections. election. In Scotch Counties.] The preparations for an Notice of election in a Scotch county are made by the Sheriff, who must give notice of the election in the same form and manner, and make the same preparations as have been above described.' The day and hour to be appointed by him in Time of the notice of election are regulated by the rule above described for county elections generally, except as regards the county of Orkney and Shetland, where the day for the election shall not be less than twelve nor more than sixteen days after that on which the writ is received.3 election. election. The place of election must be some convenient Place of room in the county town; but the old Scotch Reform Act has specially provided, that in Clackmannan and Kinross, the place for holding the election shall be the town of Dollar; in Elgin and Nairn, the town of Forres; and in Ross and Cromarty, the town of Dingwall. And the Scotch Reform, 1868, has also specially provided that Peebles and Selkirk the place for holding the election shall be the burgh of Peebles, and that 1 Ante, pp. 19-37. 2 Ante, p. 20. 3 Ballot Act, rule 58, App. cxii. 4 4 2 & 3 Will, IV. c. 65, s. 29, App. xxv. 5 The expression in the Act is "the writ shall be proclaimed CHAP. III. the elections for counties mentioned in Schedule B of the Act shall be held at the towns severally mentioned in that schedule.' Notice of election, when and how published. Full preparations for a contest: Pollingplaces and districts. Anomaly. The rules as to the mode, and hours, of publication of the notice of election are the same as have been above described, except that in the county of Orkney and Shetland, the Sheriff of Orkney, who is Returning Officer, must, in addition to giving notice in the manner above described, within twenty-four hours of receiving the writ, forward a precept to the Sheriff Substitute in Shetland, notifying the day appointed for the election; whereupon the latter officer is required, without delay, to announce such day by notices on the church doors." 66 Such are all the preparations necessary where no contest is anticipated. At any contested election," runs a statute of the present reign, the Sheriff shall, if required by any of the candidates, on or before the nomination day, direct two or more booths, compartments, halls, rooms, or other places for polling, to be provided at each polling place," that is to say, at each of the places set apart for polling in the appointed polling-districts of the county. It might perhaps be argued, that the words contested elections must here mean any election at which the seats to be filled are fewer than the persons who have, since the receipt of the writ, announced their intention to stand; that the word "candidates must designate such persons; and that the construction put by the Court of Exchequer 5 66 at the burgh of Peebles," but all Scotch elections ought, it appears, still to be commenced by publicly reading the writ, post, p. 20. 131 & 32 Vict. c. 48, s. 24, App. lxxiii. 2 Ante, p. 20. 32 & 3 Will. IV. c. 65, s. 31, App. xxvi. Ballot Act, rule 61, App. cxiii. 4 16 Vict. c. 28, s. 4, App. xlviii. Confirmed by 5 2 & 3 Will. IV. c. 65, s. 27; App. xxiv. ; 16 Vict. c. 28, ss. 2, 3, App. xlvii. |