EARLY AND OFTEN

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 58, Issue 85, 13 May 1929, Page 5

EARLY AND OFTEN

WHERE DEAD MEN VOTE. PERSON ATORS IN 1RELAND. "Flying Squads" wlio go round and vote on behalf of the dead. the sick and the dying, as well as for the absent and indifferent, are as much a scandal of Irisli clections to-day as tliev were 30 years ago, says a Dublin correspondcnt. , Quite a number of person ations took place at the by-election in North Duhliii recently, and the situation in the North of Ircland has become so serious that an inquiry is to be held. The practico appears to he winked at. if not dcfinitely encouraged, by political party organisers. When the Eree State caine into being, some effort was made by the Govcniment to check the evil, hufc in tlie North of Ireland it goes on unabated. It is suggcsted tliat in some of tlie cominittee rooms complete disguises are provided. When personators have paid several visits to one polling placo to register otlier persons' votes, and they fear they are liable to be recognised by officials, tliey repair to heaclquarters to cliange tlieir attire. If they are cliallenged they are liable to be arrested and lmprisoned, but in few cases does this happen. It is declared that in one election in Belfast, out of a total register of about 20,000, some 2000 voters wdre personated at the polling place. Oue man boasted to a candidate after the result had been declared tliat he had voted against him 20 times. Since they gained the franclii.se women personators have shown themselves even more adept than men. A diflierent liat or eoat makes it almost impossible to detect women wlien they turn up for a tliird or fourth time, and borrowed babies have served to arrest suspicion. Rightful owners of votes have more than once had difficulty in persuading the police that they were personated and not the personators. t The story is told of oue Belfast man of 87 who had never registered a vote, althougli he had presented himself at the polling place at every election! Each time be liad been forestalled.