Why was not some serious effort made before now to tighten up our electoral laws, despite the fact that there has been personation in every shape and form? There have been convictions over the years but not to any great extent. Those who were caught were brought before the courts, but what about the numerous cases of personation which were never highlighted? I remember another election in the late forties or early fifties in which by devious means the electoral stamp was borrowed by a group of election enthusiasts. If it was not borrowed it was stolen, and if it was not stolen it was obtained by some other means. A book of ballot papers was taken as well. We had one person marking the ballot papers with a pencil, another stamping them, and another going around to the various presiding officers who were known to these three persons. During a rush in the polling booth or at tea-time break the papers were dropped into the ballot box. Many Members of the House may say that is too fantastic to believe.
There are also the presiding officers who are dedicated to a particular party. Such a presiding officer will be anxious only to facilitate the political party in which he believes. He too may be an election maniac. Many people — and perhaps the Minister would be the first to say it — may contend that if Deputy O. J. Flanagan saw a ballot paper being marked illegally on polling day he should go to the police and inform them. That is not my job and was not my job any more than it was to have an inquiry conducted into how 93 out of 96 people voted, with 68 possible votes only recorded.
The whole of our electoral laws at present are open to abuse. The key man in any election is the presiding officer and there are presiding officers dedicated entirely to various political parties. It is my opinion that, if such people can be found, a completely independent person should act in that capacity. It is wrong to have people of strong political convictions acting in that capacity. All they need do is to close their eyes to what is happening with regard to their party and open their eyes to what may be happening in a political party in which they do not believe or whom they want to see beaten. Everybody knows that in this city and outside it there is what is known as the professional peresonator who first presents himself at a polling booth wearing spectacles and then later with, first, an overcoat and later without. As has happened, the same person could be led in, assisted by his political colleague, wearing dark glasses and carrying a stick appearing semi-blind being presented with a ballot paper and voting accordingly. Nobody knows better than the Minister for the Environment that those of us who have been on the political scene for a long time, or whose parents were on the political scene over a long period, have listened to these polling day stories and stories of by-election incidents, such as the one I have just related. When I conveyed that information to a former Minister, since dead, he threw up his hands in despair and said: "Let us get out of this place right away or we will all be arrested."
The abuses of the electoral system that take place on every polling day are astonishing. There may not be sufficient votes in it to elect or defeat a candidate. Nevertheless the present electoral laws are such as lend themselves to every type of abuse and the present system with regard to polling cards is disastrous. Something must be done about it. Just as there is the fanatic who describes himself as a stamp collector or an erstwhile collector of cigarette cards, there is also the fanatic going around awaiting the delivery of ballot cards so that he can go to schools, colleges and flats and have these collected in preparation for his scheme of personation. Many presiding officers the moment a voter appears with a voting card and says: No. 86, No. 140, or whatever the number, without any further questioning looks at that voting card and hands out the ballot paper. In my view voting cards have led to considerable electoral abuse. Under electoral laws it should be a serious offence for any presiding officer to give an unstamped ballot paper because that is cheating a person of their vote, stealing their vote, denying them their vote. The law should be such that it is deemed to be a serious offence on the part of any presiding officer who fails to stamp a ballot paper. It has been established after elections that certain people who went into polling booths seeking their ballot paper, people who were not fully equipped with all the knowledge they should possess within a polling booth, just stretched out their hand for a ballot paper and received one unstamped, marked their paper and placed it in the ballot box. On the following day during the count that paper would be disqualified because it did not carry the presiding officer's stamp.
If there is to be a tightening up of the electoral laws such should be directed towards the administration of the polling booths and towards the authority vested in presiding officers. At 9 o'clock in the evening presiding officers can wash their hands completely of every irregularity that may have taken place in the course of that polling day. If a presiding officer has done a good job for the political party in which he believes, he will go home in the full confidence of a successful result the following day or, as the case may be, if there are good election agents of the opposition party, he may go home extremely disappointed contending that he had hard luck that day and did not achieve the results he thought he might have within his polling booth. I put it to the Minister that, if all voters are not angels, neither are all presiding officers. For that reason whenever there is to be a tightening up of our electoral laws I hope it will incorporate a code of conduct with serious penalties for any presiding officer who gives out two ballot papers, who knowingly gives a ballot paper to a person not on his list, who knowingly gives a ballot paper to John Browne, junior, when it should be John Browne, senior, or who gives a ballot paper to Kate Browne of a certain address when it should be Kate Browne of some other street. In my opinion these are irregularities which should be suitably covered by electoral laws, meriting jail sentences, severe fines, or complete disqualification from participation in all future elections.
The Minister for the Environment should be represented at every counting of votes because numerous irregularities can take place at counts, even with the greatest alertness by the political agents present. Votes are usually put into bundles of 50 and a label marked "50" put around them and a rubber band also. It can happen that all these votes are then placed in tea chests and there is nothing to stop, by an alleged mistake — after hard work all day and this is late at night — some political opportunist at the count putting the bundle of 50 designed for Barry into Kelly's box or throwing two bundles of 50 which belong to Flanagan into Burke's box, or putting a number of bundles of 50 which belong to some other candidate into Desmond's box.
I cannot understand how, many years ago when I was first elected, due to the intervention of the late Dr. O'Higgins a particular tea chest of votes was thrown out and when it was emptied on the table it was found to contain three bundles of 50 of my votes. As it happened, whether accidentally or deliberately, these three bundles were thrown into another tea chest. The excuse given was that the counters were tired, that it was late at night and that they had been counting a whole day and a whole night; it was something that should not have happened. If I had been depending on those 150 votes where would my seat be in this House? What would be the situation of anybody who was the victim of a mistake of that kind? There should be no room for mistakes when it comes to bringing to perfection the democratic right of people to vote, the proper destination of the votes, the proper and accurate calculation of the votes and the announcement of a proper count. We have all these serious abuses of the electoral laws which must be put right. Electoral law in my opinion is not designed to produce 100 per cent accuracy.
If a person is to be charged with asking for a ballot paper twice, why is some charge not brought against the person who appears on two registers? It is not enough to say that a person must be charged for asking for a ballot paper twice if his name appears on two or three registers — particularly on two registers. I think the voter must be involved in whatever changes are made in electoral law. The voter should have the responsibility of inspecting the register to see that he is on it and that his name does not appear twice and, if it does, of directing the attention of the local council or rate collector to this fact — he will have a number of months to do this — to ensure that his name will not appear twice. If his name appears twice on the register, after full investigation he should be liable for prosecution and fine. If we are going to tighten electoral law let us tighten it in every way, leaving no loopholes so that you will not have a fancy nancy saying: "I am registered as a voter here in this polling booth: I stayed for a short while in another area and I am off the register there." The fancy nancy to her own full knowledge is registered with the sole intention of casting two votes when the elction takes place.
The voter must accept responsibility for his own vote, his own registration and the obtaining of his own ballot paper, for seeing that it is stamped and for marking his ballot paper in secrecy and placing it himself in the box. A person registered in two or three areas should be charged with an offence. The Minister must know that the composition of the register of electors from the time it appears on the election table is full of serious defects in every constituency. Something will have to be done to ensure that the register is more accurate so as to avoid personation on polling day. Accurate compilation of the registers of electors will leave no room for personation if everybody, or the majority of those available present themselves at the polling booth and ask for a ballot paper on election day.
Not so long ago in my constituency we had the extraordinary spectacle of a polling booth having run out of ballot papers at 7 p.m. This should not happen. During the last election the mother of a little girl in my constituency presented herself to vote and when she was coming out the political agent outside said: "Your daughter voted early this morning". She said, "My daughter did not vote because she is in Dublin and is not coming down." I told that lady she should have called the police there and then but she did not do so. This woman in the area of Mountbolus in County Offaly said she was amazed that a register was produced and that her daughter had been marked off as having voted at 9.30 on election day. The girl did not vote as she was working in Dublin and did not leave the city.
This sort of thing is widespread. It may not amount to more than 500 or 1,000 cases in the whole country in one day out of some 2 million voters, but it is enough if there is one case because it is an irregularity and should not happen. Greater precautions will have to be taken in compiling the registers. We should have an independent officer appointed by the Minister for the Environment present to supervise every count in the country. I hope serious consideration will be given to this at a later stage.
The electoral laws should clearly define the method of the appointment of presiding officers. A garda used always be on duty in polling stations but it is a long time since I saw one in any of the polling stations in my constituency. If a garda is walking up and down inside a polling station it will help to stop the electoral maniac who may be waiting outside to exercise his franchise for the second or third time. It was a great mistake to dispense with gardaí in polling stations on polling day. It is not sufficient to have them driving around in patrol cars from one polling station to another. There are enough gardaí driving in patrol cars around our cities and towns at night while crime is taking place. We all see groups of gardaí on duty when the count takes place, directing traffic, shifting cars and regulating parking but they are not in polling stations on the day of the election.
When the Minister is drafting comprehensive electoral laws I hope steps will be taken to ensure that gardaí are present at every polling station on the day the election takes place. I also hope the people who are employed to count the votes will not have any known political affiliations. The new regulations will have to cover matters like this. I am sure the Minister is aware that in many instances a person who is given a ballot paper can take it away from the polling booth and that this is how impersonation takes place. A voter will go into a polling station and ask for his ballot paper. When he gets it he goes to a polling booth and puts the ballot paper he got into his pocket and he puts a mock ballot paper into the ballot box. A number of people can do that at various times during the day. In the case of people about whose votes they are doubtful they will give them the ballot papers they have brought out of the polling stations after they have marked them and tell them to bring out their own after they get them without letting anybody see them doing this and put the marked ballot papers into the ballot boxes.
