No one can Know how you Vote.

When it is locally supposed to be known how an individual has voted, it is either because the individual has himself told it, or it is pure guesswork, and often quite contrary to fact. Designing persons may try to frighten dependent electors from recording their votes, or seek to compel them to vote in a certain way, by asserting that it will be found out how they have voted; but all this is sheer falsehood and bounce.

On the electoral roll every registered elector has his name and a number to it. When the elector enters the polling booth he finds there the returning officer and his poll-clerk and the scrutineers appointed by the several contending candidates to watch proceedings on their behalf. The clerk asks him his name, finds it on the roll, marks it that he may know if more than one person comes to vote in that elector's name, takes a voting paper, and writes the number, which is opposite the elector's name on the roll, in one corner upon the back of the voting paper, and folds and gums down the corner that the number may no more be seen; he then loosely folds up the voting paper, stamps it on the outside, and hands it to the elector. The elector then goes alone to the private recess, crosses out the names of the candidates he wishes not to be elected, or the proposal he wishes not to be carried, folds up the paper again, shows the outside of it to the clerk that he may see the stamp and know that it is the same paper, and then deposits it in the slit in the top of the ballot-box, which is kept locked until the voting is over.

If another person comes and claims to be the real elector of that name, and receives a voting paper, the fact is noted by the poll-clerk by his having two marks to that name upon his roll. If in the same electorate there are several polling booths, and an elector votes more than once by voting at more than one of them, this is found out by it being seen at the close of the voting that the same name has been marked on the roll at more than one polling place.

When the polling is over the box is unlocked by the returning officer in the presence of the poll-clerk and the candidates' scrutineers. The returning officer then takes out and unfolds the voting papers one by one and reads out the votes, and lays the papers one on another face upwards to the last. The votes as they are read out are taken down by the poll-clerk, but neither he nor anyone else sees the gurnmed-down numbers at the back to tell whose votes they are, nor can have any idea whose votes are being read.

If the marked rolls reveal that more persons than one have voted as the same even the user or users of these papers voted. Spoiled voting papers are also [unclear: laid] aside by themselves as lnformal elector, the voting papers are turned over, backs upward, and the corners cut open without the opposite side being seen, till the number required is come to and if more than one voting paper bears that same number these papers are disallowed and placed by themselves with their faces still downward, so that It is not known how even the user or users of these papers voted. Spoiled voting papers are also laid aside by themselves as informal.

page 28

The genuine, the fraudulent, and the spoiled voting papers are now placed by the returning officer, each lot in a separate brown paper wrapper supplied by the Government, tied up with rod tape, and sealed, still in the presence of the clerk and the opposing candidates' scrutineers. He then writes across each parcel what it contains, and signs his name. The same is done with the poll-clerk's marked roll. The candidates' scrutineers may also, if they like, write across, sign, and seal each parcel. All this is done with the utmost despatch while the public are awaiting the result of the poll.

The returing officer then sends these sealed parcels to the clerk of writs at Wellington, who keeps them in their sealed condition for six months, and then, still unopened, destroys them by fire. In the case of the licensing polls, the parcels are at once sent to the clerk of the nearest Resident Magistrates' Court, in a similar way, also for destruction after six months' custody. If during the six months they are required for a judicial inquiry, only the papers wanted are dealt with, and that in a judicial court under conditions of strictest secrecy. No honest voter, therefore, need ever fear that if he votes at the election or the licensing poll anybody but himself will ever know how he has voted unless he himself chooses to tell it. Heavy penalties are provided for any attempt to violate any of the foregoing provisions.

You may vote at any polling booth in your own electorate, and, as the time draws near, may need to inquire where the most convenient one for you is located.