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68
The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland.
[DEC., 1908
associations, and other similar bodies was not
the subject of definite legislative enactment
but the only rules regulating the ballot were
those laid down in the first part of the First
Schedule to the Act, and if the system of voting
by ballot be adopted—as it had been in theii
Society—there was, he submitted, an impliec
intention that the procedure should be accord
ing to the only method regulated by statute.
In any event, no matter what private associa
tions of laymen might do, it certainly woulc
be unwise for the Society of the solicitors-ol
Ireland to allege the contrary. According to
the form in the Schedule to the Act the infor
mation to be given to voters by the ballot
paper was (i) the number of candidates; (2) the
surname and Christian name of the candidates;
(3) the private residence of the candidates;
and nothing else. Let him apply the rules to
the election of the Council of the Incorporated
Law Society. First—Did the persons employed
in taking the poll act with the utmost im
partiality ? and secondly, did the voting paper
contain only necessary information ?
It would,
of course, be understood that he used the word
" impartial " in the broadest sense, and not in
any way as impugning the good faith of those
persons, of which he had not .the smallest
doubt. He took it that the Secretary was the
Returning Officer, and was the' person re
sponsible for the persons employed in taking
the poll. There could be no doubt that the
Returning Officer was the proper person to
provide the ballot papers. Could he be said
to act impartially if he supplied the voters with
more information about one candidate than
another? For instance, let them take the pre
sent year's voting paper. The voter was in
formed that A was nominated by the President
for the year, and was seconded by an ex-
President ; that he had attended twenty-one
times at the Council meetings, and that he was
a member of the outgoing Council; but that
B was only nominated by one friend and
seconded by another; that he had not attended
at all at the Council meetings, and was not a
member of the outgoing Council.
Secondly,
how could a voting paper be said to contain
only necessary information if it gave the voter
particulars of the nomination ?
Nomination
was merely a matter of procedure, and the only
persons who required to know that a candidate
had been properly proposed were the scruti
neers. Did the voting paper of the Society
put all the candidates on the same par, and
were voters influenced by the information con
tained therein ? Could equality of treatment be
said to have been given in a voting paper
which set forth the fact that one candidate was
a member of the outgoing Council, that he had
attended its meetings twenty-one times, and
that he was proposed and seconded by two of
its most prominent members, but that another
candidate was not a member of the outgoing
Council, had not attended any of its meetings,
and was only proposed and seconded by two
of the ordinary members of the Society ?
Surely it would be untruthful to say that this
informatiou had no effect upon voters. He
had no objection to the information being
forthcoming: indeed, he
thought that
the
attendances of the, members should be posted
up in the Incorporated Law Society's Hall for
at least seven days prior to the election ; but he
did say that in every election the law presumed
that at the poll every voter should be absolutely
free and unfettered, and that all influences
which might—legitimately or otherwise—have
been brought to bear upon him prior to the
election to vote for a particular candidate should
cease. He said that upon purely constitutional
grounds it was essential that the voting paper
of the Society should be absolutely in accord
ance with the Ballot Act, which was the only
Act regulating such matters, and it regulated
it in every detail.
j*^-
MR. P.
].
BRADY said
that while he
seconded the motion he might say it was his
privilege for the last two years to be associated
with eight others in scrutinising the votes, and
he thought it would be found the scrutiny was
conducted, as it should be, with the greatest
regularity and propriety, and
that
it was
absolutely impossible that any infringement of
the rules or of the rights of the profession
would be allowed. As he understood it, Mr.
Rooney had no objection to the information
being given, but he objected to it being given
on the ballot paper.
Objection had been
taken to the motion on the ground that if the
information were not given the members would
not attend at all (hear, hear).
MR. BYRNE said it would be perfectly
useless to post up the information downstairs,
as the voters who had to vote by ballot were
all over Ireland. He thought every elector
lad a right to have before him the names of
;he candidates and the number of times they
lad attended to their duties, because it would
se a monstrous thing if a man could be their
representative and not attend without anyone
mowing it (hear, hear). There was no other
vay of supplying the information, save on a