82 INSPEC TORS. POLLING to numbers and charges: 38 & 39 Vict. c. 84, Sched. I.; 48 & 49 Vict. c. 62, s. 4. In order to detect personation it is provided by 6 & 7 Vict. c. 18, s. 85, with regard to all elections, that previous to the time appointed for taking the poll, candidates may appoint persons to be their agents to attend at the different polling booths for the purpose of detecting personation; and upon giving notice in writing to the returning officer, or his deputy, of the name and address of the persons appointed (for form of notice, see post, p. 646), it is lawful for them to attend as such agents at the booths to which they have been respectively appointed. No more than one polling agent (which is the title now given to agents to detect personation) may be employed for payment at each polling station: 46 & 47 Vict. c. 51, s. 17, and Schedule I., Part I.; and see post, p. 348. If a polling agent be employed for payment, he must now be appointed by the election agent (or his subagent), and not by the candidate: 46 & 47 Vict. c. 51, s. 27 (1). Although polling agents misconduct themselves by attempting to violate the secrecy of the ballot, that will not avoid the seat of the sitting member, whose polling agents they were: Bolton, 2 O'M. & H. 141. But otherwise if their conduct has been such as to affect the result of the election: section 13. Candidates may also appoint agents to attend the counting of votes, whose names and addresses must be transmitted to the returning officer one clear day at least before the opening of the poll: 35 & 36 Vict. c. 33, rules 31 and 52. In case such an agent dies or becomes incapable, another may be appointed rule 53. It is not compulsory to appoint either polling agents or agents for counting the votes; a candidate may himself either undertake these duties or assist his agents: 35 & 36 Vict. c. 33, rule 51. AGENT. The appointment of election agent must be made on ELECTION or before, the nomination day: and the name and address of the election agent must on or before the same day be declared in writing by the candidate or some person on his behalf to the returning officer (for form of notice, see post, p. 645), who must forthwith give public notice of the name and address of every election agent so declared: 46 & 47 Vict. c. 51, s. 24 (1), and (3). Sub-agents may be appointed in counties, and, if appointed, the election agent must, one clear day before the polling, declare in writing the name and address of every sub-agent to the returning officer (for form of notice, see post, p. 645), who is forthwith to give public notice of the name and address of every sub-agent so declared: ibid., section 25 (3). See further as to the appointment, powers, and duties of election agents and sub-agents, and as to who may be employed for payment at an election, post, Chapter on Election Expenses. SUBAGENTS. PLACE OF ELECTION. In counties. In divisions of counties. IN counties, the 7 & 8 Will. 3, c. 25, s. 3, directed the sheriff of the county to hold his county court for the election "at the most public and usual place of election" within the same county, and where the same "has most usually been held for forty years last past." But the above section has been repealed by the 35 & 36 Vict. c. 33. Provisions were made by 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 45, and 30 & 31 Vict. c. 102, for the places of election in the counties divided by those Acts respectively, but those provisions are now superseded by section 16 of the Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885 (48 & 49 Vict. c. 23), which provides that the place of election in the case of a division of a county is to be in such town situate in the county, or in a county of a city or town adjoining the county, as the local authority having power to divide the division into polling districts, or in default of any determination by such local authority, the returning ELECTION. officer, may from time to time determine, as being, in PLACE OF their or his opinion, the most convenient for the purposes of the election. The county council is now the local authority for the purpose of appointing places of election the Local Government Act, 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41), s. 3, and ante, p. 61. ties not In those counties, however, which are not divided by In counthe last-mentioned Act (e.g., Rutland and several Welsh divided. counties), the place of election is fixed by 35 & 36 Vict. c. 33, rule 3, which provides that the place of election is to be a convenient room situate in the town in which such election would have been held if that Act had not been passed, or where the election would not have been held in a town, then situate in such town in the county as the returning officer may from time to time determine upon as most convenient for the electors. Some of the counties which are not affected by 48 & 49 Counties specially Vict. c. 23, have a place of election expressly provided provided by Act of Parliament; as in the cases of Brecknock- for. shire, for which Brecknock; Radnorshire, for which New Radnor or Rothergowy; Montgomeryshire, for which Montgomery or Machynlleth, are named as the respective places of election by 27 Hen. 8, c. 26. And by section 16 of 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 45, the place of election for the Isle of Wight is to be at Newport. And now by the Sheriffs Act, 1887 (50 & 51 Vict. Sheriffs Act, 1887. c. 55), s. 18, it is provided that the sheriff's county court for the purpose of an election is to be held at the place heretofore appointed or authorized by law, or such other place as the sheriff may from time to time fix with the consent of the authority having for the time being power to divide the county into polling districts for the purpose of parliamentary elections. Previously to the 35 & 36 Vict. c. 33, there was no In boroughs. express provision as to the place of election in boroughs generally, except in some cases by local statutes: see Coventry, C. & R. 269, in notá. The provisions in that Act are mentioned above; and it is now provided by 48 & 49 Vict. c. 23, s. 16 (2), that the place of election ELECTION. PLACE OF in a borough or any division of a borough is to be such room or rooms in the borough as the returning officer may from time to time determine as being in his opinion the most convenient for the purposes of the election. The 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 45, s. 68, provides that no borough election is to be held in any church, chapel, or other place of public worship. Mistake in. Adjourn ment. The general forms and arrangements are the same in boroughs as in counties. Non-compliance with rule 3 of 35 & 36 Vict. c. 33, supra, in fixing the place of election would not avoid the election unless the result was affected thereby : ibid. section 13. It is submitted that the same principle would be applied where the place of election is appointed under the other statutes: see 48 & 49 Vict. c. 23, s. 22. In a case which occurred before the 7 & 8 Will. 3, c. 25, it was held that a mistake in the place of election, without fraud, did not vitiate the election. Cardiganshire (A.D. 1690), 10 Journ. 486.-By an Act of Queen Mary, the sheriff's tourn was directed to be kept at C. and A. alternis vicibus: the next tourn previous to the election was to be at the latter place; but the sheriff, for convenience, directed it to be adjourned to C. No corrupt partiality was proved. The Committee resolved such adjournment to be good, to which the House agreed. See also Pembrokeshire, 32 Journ. 756, 864. But the power of the sheriff to adjourn elsewhere was expressly restrained by the 7 & 8 Will. 3, c. 25, s. 4, which enacted that the sheriff should not adjourn the county court to any other town or place within the said county without the consent of the candidates. This section has been repealed, and it is submitted that the sheriff no longer has the power to adjourn elsewhere. In case of riot, the election may be adjourned: 5 & 6 Will. 4, c. 36, s. 8; see post, p. 114. The day on which the nomination thus adjourned is concluded is to be considered to have been the day "fixed for the election," and the commencement of the poll is to be regulated accordingly: ibid. |