In order to facilitate voters in their exercise of the franchise at the coming general election, a considerable rearrangement of pre-existing polling places and polling areas has taken place. The purpose of the rearrangement has been to provide, so far as it could possibly be done, a polling place for each elector at a distance not exceeding, approximately, one and a half miles from his residence. This has involved a considerable increase in the number of polling places and widespread changes in the polling arrangements to which electors have been accustomed. Accordingly I have felt it essential, if considerable confusion and inconvenience to the electors is to be avoided on the day of the poll, that every elector on the register should be informed of the place where he is to vote at the election. It is proposed to do this by making it obligatory on returning officers in each constituency to send out as soon as may be— naturally, in any event, after the day of nominations—a card to each person on the register informing that person where he is to vote and informing him also of his number on the register. The information as to the polling place is required for the information of the elector; the information as to the elector's number on the register is required for the convenience of the presiding officer.
These cards will, as I have indicated, be sent out after the day of nominations. We cannot send them out before the day of nominations. If it happened in any constituency that only a sufficient number of candidates would be validly nominated to fill the seats allocated to that constituency, there would be no poll. The card will be in a prescribed form which, in addition to conveying the information to which I have referred, will also emphasise to the person who receives it that the receipt of a card carries with it no entitlement to vote and that possession of a card is no proof of identity, and that, therefore, the card is, as I have said, merely for the purpose of information and for no other purpose whatsoever.
Provision is included in the Bill to ensure that if by inadvertence on the part of the returning officer, or through some misdirection in the course of post, an elector does not receive a polling card, the non-receipt of that card will not constitute a ground for challenging the return in any constituency, and will not give the person aggrieved by its non-receipt a cause of action against the returning officer.
Those are the main provisions of the Bill, and, as I have said, the purpose is merely to facilitate the electors in exercising the franchise and, to some extent, to convenience presiding officers in dealing with new areas and districts. I trust the House will be agreeable to give me all stages of the Bill to-day. We have done a considerable amount of preliminary work in arranging for the printing of the cards, but it is desirable that these cards, of which there will be a considerable number, should be printed off and sent to the respective returning officers at the earliest possible moment, so that they may arrange to have them addressed and ready for despatch as soon as possible after nominations in those constituencies in which there will be a poll.