SOLDIERS' VOTES

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 85, 7 October 1918, Page 8

SOLDIERS' VOTES

A PECULIAR POSITION.

"Officers, n.c.o.'s, or men on the electoral rolls of Taranaki will be granted leave from camp on 9th to 11th October to register their votes. Railway warrants will not be issued," was a paragraph published in The Post of. last Friday. Complaint was made by Labour speakers at the _ King's Theatre last evening that no facilities were provided to enable Taranaki electors in the camps to record their votes. There would be no pollipg place in any camp. If the men travelled by train to New Plymouth they would have to pay their own fare, but a Minister of the Crown could have a free railway trip for electioning purposes. The Expeditionary Forces Voting Act of 1914 made provision for the general Election of that year, but the possibility of by-elections was overlooked. Section 220 of the Legislative Act forbids the payment of costs of conveyance of voters to a polling place (including railway fares) by other persons. Under this clause the Government would be debarred from paying the railway fares of soldiers who made a journey for the purpose of voting. The time_ of departure of a Taranaki draft of reinforcements, originally fixed for • 9th October, has been postponed to the 11th in order that the men may have an opportunity to vote on the 10th.