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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 67

Duty of the Returning Officer

Duty of the Returning Officer.

The returning officer having received the papers, they are sorted into heaps as belonging to the various candidates whose names are marked first in the order of each voter's preference on the voting papers. When the returning officer has ascertained the total number of votes cast, after casting out all informal papers, he divides the number of papers by a number one more than the number of seats before decided upon as belonging to the district; and the next highest number to the quotient thus obtained gives what is termed "the elective quota" for that district, no page 24 candidate being elected who, after the voting papers have been dealt with in the manner following, has not obtained this quota.

It will be apparent that, in the first instance, while a number of candidates would at every election receive much more than the required quota of first votes, and be thus elected, they would do so at the expense of others who would not receive the quota, and thus might not be elected; but this difficulty is obviated, and all the required number of candidates elected by exactly the same quota, by making each voter's paper, under certain circumstances, transferable to a candidate for whom he has voted in a second, third, or further order.