LATE ISSUE OF BALLOT PAPERS (Hansard, 2 April 1979)

§ Mr. Cormack
I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.
We referred to this matter during the debate on Second Reading and the Minister of State made certain helpful remarks. However, I should like him to be more forthcoming than he was because this is a disturbing matter. There could be an occasion, since in many areas voters arrive at the polling station at the last minute, where, because of the extra clerical work imposed upon the officials, people who arrive within the due time are still waiting to cast their votes when 10 o'clock strikes.

§ Mr. Ward
Another problem sometimes arises. In Warmington in 1966, in 1047 that famous election, the lights failed in a polling station. There was an enormous and inordinate delay in getting people through.

Mr. Connack
We could all, from our own experience, refer to cases, perhaps not as spectacular as the one described by the hon. Member for Peterborough (Mr. Ward), where a genuine problem has arisen.
Although the genuine problem has been the exception in the past, it may in this election be much more general. Therefore, I ask the Minister of State to indicate more fully than he has that there will be precise guidance for returning officers for occasions such as this.
I am not suggesting that we should make it easy for those who turn up late. Anyone who turns up at one second past 10 o'clock has no entitlement to vote. I am concerned for the people, particularly the elderly, who are a little slow in their movements, who turn up in good time but are delayed in voting because of the pressure on the officials.

§ Mr. John
I apologise to the hon. Member for Staffordshire, South-West (Mr. Cormack). I did not realise that this new clause had been selected. I have taken instructions and I understand that the presiding officer has a discretion about people in the polling station at the end of the period. I would rather the situation stayed that way than have this new clause. The new clause states: All electors within the precincts of the polling station by 10 p.m. shall be allowed to cast their vote notwithstanding the fact that they may not have been issued with ballot papers at that hour. That would theoretically enable some people to delay the end of the poll almost indefinitely. They might have been in the polling station keeping out of the way or have deliberately delayed taking their ballot papers.
The period from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. is a peculiarly dead period in many areas. I cite my own experience on that. The presiding officer has a discretion about the presence of people in the polling booth at that time. I should prefer that to continue than to lay down a rigid and unworkable rule.

§ Mr. Cormack
Would that discretion allow the presiding officer to give a ballot paper to an old lady who has genuinely 1048 arrived just before time and who does not have her ballot paper even if it is a minute past 10 p.m.?

§ Mr. John
Yes. I understand that to be so.

§ Mr. English
I revert to the problem of what I call "my little huts". They are not much larger than the Welsh "little huts". They have just enough room for the presiding officer and his colleague and for the voter to get in and put his paper into the ballot box.
The queue, therefore, is not within the polling station, as envisaged by my hon. Friend, though it might be within the precincts, depending on the definition of "precincts". These huts are put up in my constituency in areas where there are no convenient buildings to use as polling stations. They are put up where there is no school or building of that kind. It is not customary in my constituency to use houses for polling.
These huts are small, temporary structures. Because they are so small, one cannot have more than one polling station in each structure. It is not possible to split polling stations without providing another hut. The result is that towards the close of the poll—say, in the last hour and a half—there is a queue outside the hut.
My hon. Friend should have answered my previous question. He may not wish to accept this new clause—and I am sure that the hon. Member for Staffordshire, South-West (Mr. Connack) moved it as a probing one—but he must answer the earlier question. If a returning officer is to povide himself—assuming that there is space—with more little huts so that he has more polling stations, the Home Office should finance it.
8.45 p.m.
If that is not so, the queues outside are likely to become longer am not suggesting that it will take every voter twice as long to vote twice, but we can make a reasonable guess that it will take him 50 per cent. longer. What provision is being made to reduce the lengthening queues? There is plenty in the rules of guidance about ballot boxes. I am sure that the remarks of my right hon. Friends and hon. Friends about ballot boxes and their ability to hold 3,000 pieces of paper are correct. How does one put one and a 1049 half pints of people into a pint pot? We must consider the limitation of space in a polling station. Before 3 May, my hon. Friend must send out guidance about this problem.

§ Mr. John
We shall look sympathetically at that problem, which is different from that to which the hon. Member for Staffordshire, South-West (Mr. Cormack) referred.

§ Mr. Cormack
I beg to ask leave to withdraw the motion.