§ 9.The form of claim shall contain as declaration of the qualification of the claimant to be registered, including a declaration that the claimant has attained the required age, and of the character in which the claimant desires to be registered, that is to say, either as a Parliamentary elector, or as a local government elector, or as a local government elector who is not entitled to vote for all local government elections, and where the claimant claims in respect of a non-resi- 2273 dential qualification a declaration of residence or in case such person has no settled residence an address to which communications may be sent. A note shall also be added to the form warning the claimant that any false declaration for the purpose of this provision will involve a penalty.
§ Mr. DICKINSONI beg to move, in Rule 9, after the word "sent" ["communications may be sent,"], to insert the words, "It shall be an offence on the part of any claimant to give different addresses in respect of different qualifications."
This Amendment deals with the form of the claim made by the person who desires to be put upon the register, and it arises in connection with the last part of Rule 9, which states that
where the claimant claims in respect of a non-residential qualification a declaration of residence, or in case such person has no settled residence to which communication may be sent.An Amendment had been drafted to cut out those last few words, but was withdrawn in order that I might move this Amendment. Objection is being taken by persons who are experienced in electioneering to the suggestion that a person who is entitled to non-residential qualification shall have the right to give any address to which communications can be sent. I suggest, as a matter of commonsense, that it should be made obligatory upon every person who has a non-residential qualification, and who has probably two votes if he has a residential qualification, to state some adddess in respect to the various qualifications. A man for instance might have half-a-dozen business qualifications in different parts of the country. I suggest that such an individual should be compelled to state on the claim some one address. The reason for it is this, that when the election occurs it is in the interests of straightforward dealing and also of those who are engaged in the election to know the people who have got these duplicate qualifications. People of this kind will be challenged by personation[...] gents, and if there was this one address there would be a means of ascertaining the identity of the persons. I think we ought to do what we can to ensure that the law will be carried out, and that persons should not vote more than once or twice, according to what their rights are. That can only be effected if the electioneering agent 2274 and others know exactly who those people are, and the only way by which that can be done is by insisting that the person should give the same address in respect of whatever number of qualifications he may have.
§ Mr. GILBERTI beg to second the Amendment.
I hope the Ministers in charge will be able to accept this proposal. Under this Bill a number of persons will be entitled to two votes, and those people will have a number of different qualifications. It will be necessary at election time to check the voters in order to see that they do not vote more than once. In the London County Council elections a person can only vote once, and in that case it has always been necessary to make an extract of the number of people on the various London registers who had more than one vote. The only way that could he done was by sorting out those people according to the addresses which gave their places of residence. If persons are allowed to give varying addresses, it will simply be an impossibility to check people with more than two votes. The Amendment of my right hon. Friend will simplify matters very much, and where people may have four, or five, or six votes will provide an opportunity of finding out the identity of the voter and enabling him to be challenged by the personating agent. We ought not to make it more difficult for local people to find out the rights of those who claim to be entitled to vote.
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir George Cave)I really do not think that any attempt has been made to answer the observations which were made by my right hon. Friend the President of the Local Government Board on the last occasion when this matter was under discussion. A man may have more than one nonresidential qualification. He may treat his business premises as his address, and he would be entitled to give that particular address. He may have his residence near his place of business, and there is nothing to prevent him giving as his address, the residence nearest to the place out of which he gets his non-residential qualification. You cannot enter on suspicions which are not likely to arise. I really am very anxious to meet fair points, but I do not think that this is one that I can meet.
§ Mr. ROWLANDSI am afraid that Ministers in charge of the Bill do not quite grasp the magnitude of the change which they are allowing to creep into this measure. We withdrew an Amendment asking that persons who had no fixed residential qualification should provide the opportunity of being communicated with. What we want is that the person shall have one distinct place where you can locate him and know that he is the same John Jones, or Thomas Brown, or whoever he may be. Anyone who has had experience of elections knows that one thing that you have to do is to identify the person who is claiming the vote. Take the ordinary form for registration, which is the best criterion you have, there is first of all the name of the individual and the qualifying property and place of residence. Those have to be placed on those forms in columns. We say that in this case there should be one address, so that the individual may have communications sent there, and so that those engaged in the election may be able to trace the name and so that the personating officers can check any attempts at personation. We know that bogus voting has taken place in the past, and that some people, overcome by their enthusiasm for a particular object, have taken the risk of giving more votes than they are entitled to give. The Amendment will enable those concerned to establish the identity of the man, and it is, I submit, a businesslike proposition in connection with elections and will facilitate the work.
Mr. H. SAMUELAt first I was disposed to agree with what was said by the President of the Local Government Board when we previously discussed this matter, but on going into it more carefully and discussing it with those specially familiar with these questions, or, at all events, with one who is very familiar with our election law and procedure, it appears to me there really is rather more in this point than at first appears. The question is a new one, owing to the provisions of this Bill, and the point has not arisen hitherto. In the past, any man who had five or six plural votes was fully entitled to use them all. Now, for the first time we provide that he shall not use more than one vote in addition to his residential vote at a General Election. The qualifications which he may have in addition to residential qualifications may be very wide. We talk about business 2276 premises and imagine that it refers to a man who has an office or shop in one place, and that therefore there would be few occasions in which his identity would not be known. But if hon. Members will recall the definition of business premises, they will see how wide it is. It means land or other premises of the yearly value of not less than £10, occupied for the purpose of business, profession or trade by the person to be registered. Any small piece of land occupied by a person, if it is of the value of £10 will qualify.
We are all at one in desiring to prevent so far as possible the provisions of the law being evaded. We know also the temptation there is to a man to use as many votes as he can, particularly in times when party passions run high and every vote may be of great importance. In such times some people will run risks and will register their votes where they can. If a man has, in respect of two or three different qualifications, two or three different addresses entered on the register, he knows that the risks are infinitesimal that he will be found out to be the same individual. It would almost be a question of accident under such circumstances that it should be discovered that the man who has voted in one town has already voted in another, if there is not a clearing house, or a process of comparison of the lists, so that the lists can be examined and the identity of the individuals established by the personating agents. I am not painting a fanciful picture as to what happens, because in the case of the London County Council elections, where plural voting is illegal, a man who has qualifications in several constituencies is unable to vote in more than one, and runs great risk in attempting to do so, because the party agents have compared the lists of the different constituencies, and wherever possible find out the identity of the individual and warn the personation agents to see that the person does not vote more than once. I would suggest to the members of the Government that if they cannot accept this proposal now, at all events, between now and the consideration of this Bill in another place, they should look into this matter rather more carefully and consider whether there is not really a serious point and a danger to be met in some such way as is proposed by my right hon. Friend. I would suggest also that if that consideration is given it should be given 2277 not only to such a case as is now in question, where claims are made to put on the register persons who have been omitted, but also as to whether this principle should not apply to all cases of the occupation vote.
§ The PRESIDENT of the LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. Hayes Fisher)We all want to limit plural voting to the extent agreed upon in the compromise, but if the House carries this Amendment there will be fuller opportunity given for exercising voting power which ought never to be exercised. Now that elections are to be all on one day. the opportunity for plural voting will be very small indeed. I think my hon. Friends are really forgetting the inconvenience that would result, if this Amendment were carried, to those who have a perfect right to be registered for a vote in respect of a non-residential qualification.
§ Mr. HAYES FISHEREverybody knows that people want to exercise as much voting power as possible, and some will take advantage of this Act, which enables them, if they have a nonresidential property—and it is not only from business premises, but from an office or even a small piece of land that the qualification for a non-residential vote is obtainable—