previously assigned) to the several constituencies showing the largest such fractions. A candidate shall be nominated by writing in the prescribed form, signed by not less than twenty nor more than fifty electors for the constituency, and delivered to the returning officer at the place and time appointed for the nomination. The returning officer shall attend for not less than one hour at the time and place appointed for the nomination. During that hour any candidate may be withdrawn by writing, signed by him or on his behalf, and delivered to the returning officer, but a candidate shall not afterwards be withdrawn. At the end of the hour, if there are not more candidates than vacancies, all the candidates shall be declared elected, and their names shall be returned to the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery. If there are fewer candidates than vacancies, a supplemental election shall be appointed for the purpose of filling the remaining vacancies; if there are more candidates than vacancies, a poll shall be taken. -The following provisions shall have effect with reference to a poll: Each elector shall have one vote only. The votes shall be given by voting-papers delivered by the electors in person. The voting-paper of an elector shall be deemed to have been given for the candidate first named thereon, but the elector may, if he think fit, designate one or more other candidates to whom in succession, in the designated order of priority, he desires that his vote should be transferred, in the event of its not being required to be used for the return of any prior candidate. The number of candidates named on a voting-paper, including the candidate first named, must not be greater than the number of vacancies. A candidate, in order that he may be returned at an election, must (subject as hereinafter in this Act expressly provided) have given for him a number of voting-papers (hereinafter in this Act referred to as the "quota") to be found by dividing the total number of voting-papers given at the election by the number of vacancies to be filled at the clection (the fraction, if any, remaining from the division being disregarded). A voting-paper shall be filled up in writing by the elector at the polling-booth, provided that the returning officer shall, at the request of an elector who states that he is unable to write, fill up the voting-paper of such elector as he directs. Every voting-paper shall be void which either— Contains the names of more candidates than there are vacancies: or And a void voting-paper shall not be counted or deemed to have been given. After the close of a poll the voting-papers shall be dealt with by the returning officer as follows: He shall cause the voting-papers to be collected, and shall ascertain the total number of voting-papers exclusive of void voting-papers, and of voting-papers on which no candidate is legibly named. His decision as to whether a voting-paper is void or a name is illegible shall be final, subject to reversal on a petition. He shall ascertain and declare the quota necessary for the return of a member. He shall arrange the voting-papers given for the several candidates in separate parcels, and shall in the parcel of each candidate sort his votingpapers according to the numbers of names upon them, placing at the top those voting-papers in which no other candidate is designated, and then those in succession in which the fewest other candidates are designated, and placing last those in which the greatest number of other candidates are designated. He shall proceed to make one or more scrutinies (as the case may require) according to the provisions hereinafter in this Act contained. The first scrutiny shall be made in the following manner: The total number of voting-papers given for each candidate shall be counted in the order in which they are arranged, and shall be recorded; and every candidate whose voting-papers equal or exceed the quota shall be declared elected: When a candidate is declared elected, his voting-papers shall be dealt with as follows: His voting-papers used in making up his quota shall be set aside as exhausted: His voting-papers counted after his quota was reached shall be deemed to be unused: An unused voting-paper of an elected candidate shall be transferred to and be deemed to have been given for the unelected candidate (if any) first designated thercon, and shall be counted to him after and in addition to the voting-papers (if any) originally given for him; and any candidate whose voting-papers are by this means raised to the quota shall be declared elected, and his voting-papers shall be dealt with as voting-papers of an elected candidate. The unused voting-papers transferred to a candidate may be counted to him in any order in which they happen to be taken. A second or other scrutiny shall (if necessary) be made in the following manner: The lowest candidate on the preceding scrutiny shall be excluded and declared not elected; and, if there still remain more candidates than vacancics, all the voting-papers of the excluded candidate shall be deemed to be unused, and shall, with the unused voting-papers (if any) remaining from the preceding scrutiny, be respectively transferred to and counted for the first of the remaining candidates (if any) designated thereon, and any candidate so obtaining the quota shall be declared elected, and his voting-papers shall be dealt with as voting-papers of an elected candidate : The same process of excluding the lowest candidate on the preceding scrutiny, and of transferring unused voting-papers, shall be repeated so often as may be necessary until all the vacancies are filled by the election of candidates obtaining the quota of voting-papers, or there remain no more candidates than vacancies: When there remain no more candidates than vacancies, all the remaining candidates shall be declared clected, whether they have obtained the quota or not: In case two or more candidates have equal numbers of voting-papers in a scrutiny, that one of them shall be deemed to be the lowest who had the fewest votes on the first scrutiny, and if they are still equal, the returning officer shall have a casting vote or votes. Appended to the act are the necessary schedules, one apportioning England into 57, and Wales into two constituencies, each returning members at the rate of 1 for every 45,300 of population; a second prescribing the form of the nomination paper; and the third containing the form of the voting-paper, or ballot, thus: CONSTITUENCY OF The bearer of this voting-paper records his vote in favor of the candidate first named below, or if he shall have been declared elected before this votingpaper shall have been reckoned by the returning officer, then for the candidate named second, and so on in succession. * The number of spaces in the voting-paper must be the same as the number of vacancies to be filled. INSTRUCTIONS TO VOTERS. 1. Only one voting-paper may be delivered by each voter. 2. The voter may name only one candidate, or any number of candidates not exceeding the number of members to be returned by the above-named constituency at this election, namely, candidates, on his voting-paper, in the order of his preference. 3. The full names of each candidate so named must be given, or the voting-paper will not be reckoned on behalf of such candidate. 4. No writing or mark shall be placed on the voting-papers other than the names of the candidates. 5. If there are two candidates nominated of the same names, the address, as it appears in the printed list of candidates, must also be given. 6. A voter must not vote more than once at the election. If he attempts to vote more than once he will be liable to a penalty of ten pounds. Mr. Morrison's bill is thus, first, an adaptation of the Federal system of apportionment after each census, and, second, an application of the Preferential Vote in the elections held in the districts obtained by such apportionment. In the United States the Preferential Vote has received no great favor. Some experimental elections have been held under the method, but no legislative approval has been given. In April, 1870, the Alumni of Harvard College applied the method to the election of a Board of Overseers of that institution, and in announcing the result, said: 66 They had adopted the system for two reasons, first, that it promised to secure a perfectly fair representation of the various classes into which the alumni might be divided, securing to each interest that might manifest itself its proportionate share of candidates. This promise had been fulfilled. Each of the ten names reported was the unanimous choice of one-tenth of the electors voting, and one or two of these names at least exhibited the good result of the system in giving expression to the wishes of considerable numbers of persons who upon any other system of voting would have been simply outvoted and silenced. Secondly, the system promised to secure to each elector a perfect freedom of action, assuring him that however he voted his vote would not be lost, so that he might express his real mind without having to consider what other people were likely to do. Here, again, the system had proved a success. To those whose duty it was to inspect the ballots nothing was more striking than the frankness and sincerity, one might also say the naïveté, with which the electors had voted, so that each ballot, varying from every other, was the exact expression of the personal individuality of the elector who cast it. What the committee had feared was that the scheme would prove so complicated in its working that the electors would fail to understand what they were to do, or that the task of counting the ballots would be excessively laborious. On the contrary, the event had proved that, out of 380 votes, only five or six had been thrust out for informality. The counting of the votes had been easy and rapid, occupying only two or three hours, not nearly so much time as it took the committee to count the same number of votes last year under the old system, in which cach elector sent in five names." To test the preferential vote, as a preliminary to this election, the students of the School of the Institute were invited to vote upon the choice of four English authors as the best, in their view, in our literature. A ballot was prepared in the following form, and distributed among them: PREFERENCE. Please add to this list of authors any other names you may prefer, and then indicate your preference among them all by writing the figure 1 against your first choice, 2 against your second choice, and so on. The ballots were read in the order cast, and the following is the tally or register of the count kept: |