to procure the insertion of their names and qualifi- Effecting Registration. cations on the register, and it will be convenient that the proceedings for that purpose should be stated singly without reference to other topics or the acts of other persons. SECTION 2. Acts of Parties necessary (in prosecuting their claim to vote) for effecting the registration of their names and qualifications. for counties, be enlisted. Registration must be effected by the party claim- Claim to vote ing a right to vote in respect of qualification, by and notice to taking certain prescribed steps on notice by the overseers of the lists of voters being about to be made up for counties, or on publication, by posting of the lists actually prepared and published by the overseers and town clerks for cities and boroughs. The first step to be taken by the party himself towards his being inserted in the register, is to procure his name to be inserted in one of the several lists of voters, by making claim of enlistment. In listing the voters for counties, the overseers take the names which form the list, and the address or place of abode, the nature of the qualification, and the local situation, from the voter himself, to be accurately furnished by him in the notice of claim required to be sent in to the overseer by the claimant. To entitle the claimant, therefore, to vote in County elections, he must, on or before the 20th of July, require his name to be inserted in the forthcoming list, of which notice shall have been given by the Effecting overseers, or persons acting as overseers by office or Registration. appointment. Notice of claim to be put in list. Form of notice. This is to be done by delivering or transmitting to the overseers, or persons acting as such, on or before the 20th of every July, a notice of their claim in the following terms, which are those prescribed by the Act, Schedule H. No. 2, p. lxxv. I hereby give you notice, that I claim to be inserted in the list of voters for the county of [or for the riding, parts, or division of the county of in the year day of S. XXXVI. Payment of a shilling. Pain of exclu sion from register. Place of abode, Cheapside, London. Nature of qualification, freehold house, [or warehouse, stable, land, field, annuity, rent-charge, &c. as the case may be, giving such a description of the property as may serve to identify it.] Where situate in this parish [or township,] King-street. [If the property be not situate in any street, lane, or other like place, then say, " "name of the property, Highfield Farm," or, name of the occupying tenant, John Edwards."] To render such claim effectual, it is expressly made necessary that the person so claiming shall, upon giving the required notice, pay, or cause to be paid, to the overseers the sum of one shilling. It does not, however, seem to be necessary that the shilling should be paid at the time, as it is immediately afterwards provided, that the notice of claim shall not be deemed valid until such sum shall have been paid. Omitting so to make claim by such notice and payment will EXCLUDE from the REGISTER. The exclusion is probably not to be permanent but for the Registration. particular year only. The clause does not contain__Effecting this important disqualifying enactment, it forms part of the notice, p. 25, merely, which falls short in this material respect. In case the overseers should not insert in the list the name of the party so having given notice of his s. XLIII. Application claim, it is expressly provided by the 43d Section, to revising that the revising barrister shall have power to supply the omission on proof of notice, and the right of the party to have been enlisted as a voter for a county on the last day of the preceding July. One mode of redress, therefore, furnished to the qualified person omitted from the list by the overseer, is by application to the revising barrister at one of his public sittings, or courts for the revisal of lists, requiring of him that the applicant's name may be inserted therein. barrister for insertion. proof of For that purpose the Act requires proof to the satis- Preliminary faction of the barrister, that the complainant gave due notice and notice of his claim to the overseers, and that he was, on the last day of the preceding July, entitled to have his name placed on the list of voters in the election of a knight or knights of the shire, for the county, or part of county, within which the particular overseer's parish (&c.) is situate, in respect of qualifying property within the particular parish. S. 56. the exacted The party should also prove that the sum of one shilling was paid, or caused to be paid, to the over- payment of seer on the part of the person giving notice of his shilling. claim upon delivering or transmitting the notice on or before the expiration of two weeks after the lists S. 38. S. 38. S. 40. Proof of claim. Claim.' New axiom of election law. Policy of provision, shall have been made, or at the farthest, before the 29th of August in each year, the day on which the overseers are required by the 40th Section of the Act, to deliver up the lists to the high constable of his hundred, or other like district. The Act expressly requires that the shilling shall be paid or be caused to be paid, and does not provide that a tender shall be sufficient; but actual proof of a legal tender would be matter for the consideration of the barrister, as whatever might be the penalty on the overseer, the elector might otherwise be ousted of his right by the perverseness or more culpable conduct of that officer. The next condition, having proved his claim duly made, expressly required by the Act is, that the claimant prove his claim, that is, that he prove himself to have been entitled on the day mentioned to have been put in the county voters' list. This seems to involve that he must prove a qualification in respect of property which would constitute a title to vote for the county, and would not then have given him a right to vote for any borough. The latter negative quality of the county qualification is now become a necessary essential to a right of voting in the choice of knights of shires for Parliament, because it is a new axiom of the present Election Law, that a title to vote at county elections will be defeated by a possible right being conferred thereby to vote for borough representation. This appears to be founded on the policy of restraining certain landholders to qualify as of the trading class of the people amongst whom they dwell, and so unite on an old principle of balancing ascendancies. Generally speaking (with the above exception) a title to vote, or a qualification as a voter, gives a right to registration, and entitles the voter to demand to be registered. The party aggrieved by the omission from the list of the overseer, having proved to the reasonable satisfaction of the revising barrister his having made claim and possessing title, is in a condition to insist on insertion in the list, a right demandable from the barrister ex debito justitiae at his pecuniary peril. SECTION 3. In Boroughs. In boroughs, on the contrary, the lists being made First step to be inserted in out arbitrarily by the officers, the claimant must borough lists. inspect them, in order to ascertain whether his name be inserted or omitted. If omitted, the first step to s. 47. Notice of Claim to be put into the List. To the Overseers of the Parish [or Township] of I hereby give you notice, that I claim to have my name inserted in the list made by you of persons entitled to vote in the election of a member [or members] for the city [or borough] of and that my qualification consists of a house in Duke Notice of claim of insertion. Form of notice. |