This Act may be cited as the Local Elections and Polls Amendment Act, 1913, and shall form part of and be read together with the Local Elections and Polls Act, 1908 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

This Act shall commence on the first day of March, nineteen hundred and fourteen.

Section seven of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting the word “seven,” and substituting the word “ten.”

Subsection three of section thirteen of the principal Act is hereby amended by adding the following proviso

The Local Elections and Polls Amendment Act, 1908, is hereby repealed.

The assent of any person to his nomination as a candidate may, notwithstanding anything in section eight of the principal Act, be signified to the Returning Officer, within the time limited for making nominations, by writing sent by post or affixed to the nomination-paper, or by an ordinary message by telegraph, which message shall be deemed to be delivered in time if delivered at the telegraph-office for transmission within the time limited for making nominations.

Section twenty-six of the principal Act is hereby amended by inserting the following subsection:—

The said section is hereby further amended by inserting, after the words “make up” in subsection two, the words “and provisionally announce.”

Immediately after ascertaining the number of votes received by each candidate, the Returning Officer and each Deputy Returning Officer shall make up into a packet all the voting-papers used by him at the polling-place at which he presided; and shall seal the same and endorse it with a description of its contents, the name of the district, the name of the polling-place, and the date of the polling; and such endorsement shall be signed by the Returning Officer or Deputy Returning Officer, as the case may be.

Each Deputy Returning Officer shall deliver the said packet to the Returning Officer, together with the copy of the roll on which the fact of any person having received a voting-paper has been noted, as prescribed by section twenty-three of the principal Act.

The Returning Officer shall make arrangements for a scrutiny of the rolls as soon as practicable after the close of the poll, and shall give notice in writing to each of the candidates or their scrutineers of the time and place at which he will commence the scrutiny.

No person other than the Returning Officer and his assistants, and one person appointed as scrutineer by each candidate for the purpose, shall be present at the scrutiny.

No candidate shall act as scrutineer under this section.

The Returning Officer shall, in the presence and hearing of such scrutineers as are present, compare one with another all the certified copies of rolls on which the fact of any person having received a voting-paper has been noted.

If on such comparison it appears that the same person has received a voting-paper at two or more polling-places, the Returning Officer shall, in the presence of such scrutineers as choose to be present, open the packets of voting-papers used at the several polling-places at which such person appears to have received a voting-paper, and shall select therefrom the voting-papers on which the number corresponding to the name of that person appears, and shall disallow every vote appearing to have been given by means of the voting-papers so selected.

Upon and after the opening of such packets the Returning Officer shall abstain from inspecting the faces of the voting-papers in the several packets so opened, other than the voting-papers selected therefrom, and shall take care that the faces of the same are not seen by any person present.

When the Returning Officer has selected from any packet all the voting-papers he is required to select therefrom, he shall forthwith, in the presence of the scrutineers, close and seal up the said packet, and shall endorse thereon a memorandum of the fact of such voting-papers having been selected from such packet, specifying the same by the name of the person to whom the same appear to have been delivered, and shall sign the endorsement with his name.

The Returning Officer shall set aside all voting-papers selected by him from any packet, as herein provided, and shall, in the presence of the scrutineers, seal up the same in a separate packet, and shall endorse the same with a description of the contents thereof, and shall sign the endorsement with his name.

On completion of the scrutiny hereinbefore directed, the Returning Officer with such assistance as he deems necessary, and in the presence of such scrutineers as are present, shall open all the packets of voting-papers used at the election other than the separate packet mentioned in subsection two of the last preceding section, and setting aside all informal papers shall ascertain the total number of votes received by each candidate at the election, and shall declare those candidates, not exceeding the number of vacancies to be filled, who have received the highest number of votes to be duly elected.

Where there is an equality of votes between candidates and the addition of a vote would entitle any of those candidates to be declared elected, the Returning Officer shall determine by lot which candidate shall be elected.

For the purposes of this section a voting-paper shall be deemed to be informal—

Where any candidate has reason to believe that the public declaration by the Returning Officer of the number of votes received by each candidate is incorrect, and that on a recount thereof such first-mentioned candidate might be found to be elected, he may within three days after such public declaration apply to a Magistrate for a recount of the votes.

Every such application shall be accompanied by a deposit of ten pounds.

The Magistrate shall, as soon as practicable after receiving the application and deposit as aforesaid, cause a recount of the votes to be made, and shall give at least two days’ public notice of the time and place at which the recount will be made.

At the recount the Returning Officer shall produce to the Magistrate all the voting-papers used at the election.

The recount shall be made in the presence of the Magistrate, or of an officer appointed by him for the purpose, and shall, as far as practicable, be made in the manner provided in the case of the original count, and the provisions of subsection three of section eight hereof, relating to the secrecy of the ballot, shall, mutatis mutandis, apply to such recount.

If on the recount the Magistrate finds that such public declaration was incorrect, he shall order the Returning Officer to give an amended public declaration of the total number of votes received by each candidate as disclosed by such recount, and the candidates then found to have received the highest number of votes, not exceeding the number of vacancies to be filled, shall be declared to be elected.

The Magistrate may make such order as to the costs of and incidental to the recount as he deems just, and, subject to any such order, shall direct the deposit made under this section to be returned to the person who made the same.

As soon as practicable after the day of the polling the Returning Officer shall make up into one packet all the packets of voting-papers used at the election and all the copies of the roll marked as provided by section twenty-three of the principal Act, and shall seal the packet and endorse it with a description of its contents and the date of the polling, and shall sign such endorsement, and shall transmit the packet to the Clerk of the nearest Magistrate’s Court, who shall keep the same for six months thereafter, and shall not open the packet or permit the same to be opened, except on the order of some Court of competent jurisdiction, and shall at the end of six months effectually destroy the same.

Every person who opens any such packet, or destroys the same or any of the contents thereof, except as provided by the last preceding subsection, is liable to a fine of fifty pounds.

Sections twenty-seven, twenty-eight, and twenty-nine of the principal Act, and section seven of the Municipal Corporations Amendment Act, 1910, are hereby repealed.

Section thirty-six of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting the words “the final declaration thereof by the Returning Officer,” and substituting the words “the close of the poll.”

An Order in Council made under the authority of section seventeen of the principal Act may provide for the extension of the hours of polling at all polls to be taken in the district of the local authority, or may apply to any specified poll.

Except where otherwise specially provided, the provisions of the principal Act and of this Act as to elections shall, so far as applicable and with the necessary modifications, extend and apply to polls other than elections.

Section forty-four of the principal Act is hereby repealed.

Every person is liable to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds who at an election—

Printing or distributing mock voting-papers.

Making public demonstration.

Every person is liable to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds or to imprisonment for any period not exceeding three months who, at any time after public notice has been given pursuant to section seven of the principal Act of any election and before the close of the poll, publishes or exposes, or causes to be published or exposed, to public view any document, or writing, or printed matter containing any untrue statement defamatory of any candidate and calculated to influence the vote of any elector.

Every person is liable to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds who erases, obliterates, or alters any official mark, stamp, or writing on the back of any voting-paper, or places thereon any writing, print, or other matter which might lead persons to believe that the same was put thereon by any officer or person duly authorized in that behalf.

Every person is liable, if a Returning Officer or Deputy Returning Officer, or an officer or clerk in attendance at a polling-booth, to two years’ imprisonment, with or without hard labour, and, if any other person, to six months’ imprisonment, who—

Every person is liable to two years’ imprisonment who—

Every person is liable to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds who wilfully makes a false answer to any question the Returning Officer is authorized to put to him.

Section thirty-three and paragraph (d)of section thirty-five of the principal Act are hereby repealed.

Sections two hundred and fifteen to two hundred and eighteen of the Legislature Act, 1908, are hereby incorporated in this Act, but modified by omitting the words “to serve in the House of Representatives” in paragraphs (c) and (d) of the said section two hundred and fifteen.

Section thirty-four of the principal Act is hereby repealed.

In any indictment or other prosecution for an offence in relation to the ballot-boxes, voting-papers, or marking-instruments at an election the property in such papers, boxes, and instruments may be stated to be in the Returning Officer at that election.

Every officer, clerk, scrutineer, interpreter, and constable in attendance at a polling-booth shall maintain and aid in maintaining the secrecy of the voting in such booth, and shall not communicate to any person, except for some purpose authorized by law, before the poll is closed, any information likely to defeat the secrecy of the ballot.

No person, except as provided by the principal Act or this Act, shall interfere with or attempt to interfere with a voter when marking his vote, or otherwise attempt to obtain in the polling-booth information as to the candidate for whom any voter in such booth is about to vote or has voted, or communicate at any time to any person any information obtained in a polling-booth as to the candidate for whom any voter at such booth is about to vote, or has voted, or as to the number on the back of the voting-paper given to any voter at such booth.

Every person in attendance at the counting of the votes shall maintain and aid in maintaining the secrecy of the voting, and shall not communicate any information obtained at such counting as to the candidate for whom any vote is given in any particular voting-paper.

No person shall, directly or indirectly, induce any voter to display his voting-paper after he has marked the same, so as to make known to any person the name of the candidate for or against whom he has voted.

Every person who offends against this section is liable, on summary conviction before two Justices, to six months’ imprisonment with or without hard labour.

An election or poll shall not be questioned by reason only of any defect in the title or any want of title of the person by or before whom the election or poll was held, if such person was actually appointed or was acting in the office giving a right to preside at that election or poll.

An election or poll shall not be declared invalid by reason of any irregularity in any of the proceedings preliminary to the polling, or by reason of any failure to hold a poll at any place appointed for holding a poll, or to comply with the directions contained in the principal Act or this Act as to the taking of the poll or the counting of the votes, or by reason of any mistake in the use of the forms contained in the Second Schedule to the principal Act, if it appears to the Magistrate having cognizance of the question that the election or poll was conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the principal Act, and that such irregularity, failure, or mistake did not affect the result of the election or poll.

Where anything is omitted to be done or cannot be done at the time required by or under the principal Act, or is done after such time, or is otherwise irregularly done in matter of form, or sufficient provision is not made by or under that Act, the Governor may, by Order in Council gazetted, at anytime before or after the time within which such thing is required to be done, extend such time, or may validate anything so done after the time required or so irregularly done in matter of form, or make other provision for such case as he thinks fit.