not be liable to contribute towards the fee to be given to such assessor.1 2 CHAP. III. to prevent Finally, the Sheriff is bound, as in English Constables elections, to provide a sufficient attendance of personaconstables, or peace officers, in each booth, or place tion: peace, &c. for polling in, for the purpose of taking into cus3 tody persons charged with personating voters. And he has a discretionary power to summon all To keep the constables, bailiffs, and other peace officers, to attend the polling-places, to keep the peace, "and to perform such other things as shall be assigned to him," [qy. them?] by the Sheriff; and to appoint any number of special constables to assist them. Every constable, bailiff, or peace-officer, so Their pay: employed, is to be paid five shillings a day for attending; but is to forfeit his office and all salary due in respect of it, if he neglects to attend during the whole election, and to obey the Sheriff's lawful commands. Persons entitled to vote at Voters not the election are not compellable to serve as special serve as constables "unless they shall consent so to do." special con liable to stables. Returning abolished In Irish Boroughs.] The preliminaries to an Sheriff's pre Irish borough election have been considerably Returni simplified by an enactment which has gone far to Officer of assimilate the duties of Returning Officers in borough. England and Ireland. According to the old practice, in any election for a city, borough, or town, not being a county of itself, the Sheriff of the county-to whom the writ was always directedhad, on receiving it, to transmit to the Returning Officer of the constituency a precept, which the 6 1 13 & 14 Vict. c. 68, s. 21, App. xlii. 2 Ante, p. 36. See also Gloucester case, 2 O. & H. 62, cited ante, p. 36, note (i.). 313 & 14 Vict. c. 69, s. 97, App. xlvii. As to the offence of personation, see post, p. 82. 4 60 Geo. III. & 1 Geo. IV. c. 11, s. 22, App. xi. See also 1 & 2 Geo. IV. c. 58, sch. A. 5 17 & 18 Vict. c. 102, s. 8, App. liv. 6 The counties of cities and towns in Ireland are Carrickfergus, Cork, Drogheda, Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, and Waterford. CHAP. III. latter was required to indorse with the date of its receipt. At the conclusion of the election, he went through the form of making an indenture with the Sheriff, who transmitted the borough return, tacked to that for the county, to the Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper at Dublin. Notice of election: Polling districts: 1 All these ceremonies have been dipensed with by a statute which provides, as we have already seen, that the writ is to go direct to the Returning Officer himself, unless he and his deputy happen to be absent; in which case it is to go to the Sheriff, who becomes the Returning Officer pro hac vice.1 2 The general rules above described as to giving notice of election, and as to the time and place for holding the election, apply to all Irish boroughs without any exceptions. 5 There is now no special enactment3 with regard to dividing any Irish boroughs, other than Belfast, Cork, Dublin, Limerick, and Waterford, into polling districts. As to these five boroughs it is enacted that they are to be divided into polling districts, and that each of the municipal wards shall be a separate polling district. It is also enacted that at every contested election for any of these five boroughs polling stations are to be erected or provided at or near the place where the election for the borough is usually held, at which stations all freemen are to vote, and that all persons entitled to vote in respect of any property qualification, or as occupiers of any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, shall vote at polling stations to be erected or provided within the ward 125 & 26 Vict. c. 92, s. 3, App. lxiv. See ante, p. 15. 3 The provisions of 13 & 14 Vict. c. 68, ss. 12-14 are repealed by the Ballot Act, and it is enacted (s. 17 (2)) that the provisions of s. 5 of the Ballot Act with regard to dividing boroughs into polling districts shall not apply to boroughs in Ireland. 4 13 & 14 Vict. c. 68, s. 5, App. p. xxxviii. upon the list of which their names shall appear, and not elsewhere. CHAP. III. tions and poll. election: The rules as to providing a sufficient number of Polling-stapolling stations and of supplying at each polling other necesstation the officers and things necessary for con- saries for the ducting the poll, are the same for Irish boroughs as those above stated.1 The Returning Officer's Expenses of liability, in the first instance, for expenses, is the same as in Irish counties, and the same enactments as have already been described, under the head of preparations for Irish county elections, apply in borough elections to the outlay on booths, or places for polling in:3 to the hiring, if possible, of buildings instead of erecting booths, and to the use, gratis, of certain rate-aided school-rooms;" to the ultimate liabilities of candidates, or their unauthorised proposers; and to the Returning Officer's Staff, except that with regard to borough elections the enactment is unrepealed, by which it is provided that if any Deputy, Sheriff, Poll Clerk or other officer, constable, bailiff, or peace officer, absent himself from his duty during any part of the time that the poll is kept open, he shall forfeit all compensation for his attendance during such election, and the Returning Officer may, in the case of the absence, neglect, misconduct, or in sufficiency of any such officer, immediately remove him and appoint any other person in his place.8 The measures to be taken if the Returning Incapacity Officer dies or becomes incapable of acting during the poll are the same as for Irish county elections." 1 Ante, p. 39. 2 1 Geo. IV. c. 11, s. 26, App. xii. and see ante, p. 53. 3 13 & 14 Vict. c. 68, s. 19, App. xlii. 4 31 & 32 Vict. c. 49, s. 10, App. lxxix. 5 Ballot Act, ss. 6-17 (3), App. lxxxvii., xci. 6 Ante, p. 30. 7 The enactment of 60 Geo. III. & 1 Geo. IV. s. 42, which was similar to this and applied to county elections, is repealed by the Ballot Act. 8 4 Geo. IV. c. 55, s. 63, App. xv. 9 60 Geo. III. & 1 Geo. IV. c. 11, s. 24, App. xi. of returnin g officer. Proceedings at. CHAPTER IV. PROCEEDINGS AT AND AFTER ELECTION: NOMINATION: Nomination Day.] The proceedings of an election commence with the nomination of candidates. This nomination is no longer made viva voce in public,' as it formerly was, but must now be made in writing, and takes place, as we have seen,3 in some convenient room, the situation of which is specified in the notice of election. At that room the Returning Officer must be in attendance on the day and at the hour specified in the notice, to receive any nomination papers that may be delivered to him. No person other than a candidate nominated, the proposer and seconder of that candidate, and one other person, is entitled to be present in that room during the two hours appointed for the election, except it be some one who is there for the purpose of assisting the Returning Officer." The Returning Officer is no longer required to take any oath before the commencement of the 1 No public formality of any kind is now necessary at a nomination in England or Ireland, as s. 7 of the Durham Act (3 Geo. III. c. 15) which required that act to be read publicly in certain English boroughs, is repealed. So also are the particular acts which related to New Shoreham, Cricklade, and Aylesbury, and which used to be read before the nomination at those boroughs. In Scotland, however, the sheriff is still required, by 2 & 3 Will. IV. c. 65, ss. 29, 30, App. xxv. publicly to proclaim the writ on the day of election by reading it. 2 Ballot Act, s. 1, App. lxxxiii. 3 Ante, p. 21. 4 Ballot Act, rule 4, App. ciii. 5 Id. rule 8, App. ciii. 1 proceedings. The Returning Officer must remain CHAP. IV. in attendance in that room during the two hours specified in the notice and for one hour after.2 During those two hours candidates may be nominated by delivering to the Returning Officer a nomination paper in the form above described,3 subscribed by two registered electors as proposer and seconder, and by eight other registered electors as assenting to the nomination." All nominations must be in writing, and each candidate must be nominated upon a separate nomination paper. The nomination papers must be delivered to the Returning Officer during the two hours appointed for the election and not afterwards." They may be handed in either by the candidate himself or by his proposer or seconder.* No person nominated after the expiration of the two hours appointed will, in the event of a contest, be entitled to have their names inserted in the ballot papers. Each candidate must be described in the nomination paper in such manner as in the opinion of the Returning Officer is calculated to sufficiently identify him; the description shall include his names, his abode, and his rank, profession, or calling, and his surname shall come first in the list of his names.10 Immediately after a nomination paper has been delivered to the Returning Officer, notice of the person nominated, and of the names of his proposer and seconder, is to be placarded in 9 1 Ballot Act, rule 54, App. cxii. 2 Id. rule 4, App. ciii. 3 Ante, p. 23. 4 Ballot Act, s. 1, App. lxxxiii. By s. 3 it is a misdemeanour to forge or fraudulently deface or destroy any nomination paper, App. lxxxv. 5 Id. rule 5, App. ciii. 6 Ballot Act, rule 8, App. ciii. Formerly a person might be nominated after the poll had commenced. 7 Id. rule 12, App. civ. 8 Id. rule 6, App. ciii. 9 Where a candidate is an Irish peer or is commonly known by some title, he may be described by his title as if it were his surname; Ballot Act, sch. 2, note, App. cxviii. 10 Ballot Act, rule 6, App. ciii. |