LIIIWhere Vote is objected to a Memorandum of the Objection shall be made by the Poll Clerk for the Returning Officer to decide. Oath to be administered to such Voter. Vote may be allowed or rejected by Returning Officer or his Assessor.
And be it further enacted, That at any Election for a Member to serve in Parliament for any County of a City or County of a Town, no Objection shall be made to vote, until after the Person tendering the same shall have declared for whom he votes; and that if the Vote of any Person shall be then objected to by an Inspector of any Candidate, the Poll shall not be on that Account delayed, but the Returning Officer's Deputy shall direct the Poll Clerk to enter a Memorandum on the Poll Books, shewing to which Candidate or Candidates such Person has given his Vote, and he shall immediately proceed to receive the Vote of the next Person who shall tender his Vote or offer to poll; and that the Inspector who shall have made the Objection on Behalf of any Candidate, shall instantly write down a Memorandum on a printed Form, to be provided by the Returning Officer, containing the Name of the Voter, the Place of his Abode, and the Nature of the Objection or Objections, and sign and date the same, and shall give the same to the Returning Officer's Deputy, and shall sign the same with the initial Letters of his Name, and then give the same to the Assistant Deputy Clerk of the Peace, who shall take the same, together with the Certificate or Affidavit or Affirmation of Registry, if it shall be necessary so to do, to the Returning Officer, to decide on the Validity thereof; and that it shall thereupon be lawful to and for the Returning Officer or Officers, or his or their Assessor, at the Discretion of such Returning Officer or Officers, or his or their Assessors only, to order the Voter to attend before him or them during the Inquiry into his Vote, and for such Returning Officer or Officers, or his or their Assessor, to examine such Voter, by such Questions as such Returning Officer or Officers, or his or their Assessor, shall think necessary to ask, as to any Objection or Objections made to his Vote; and such Returning Officer or Officers, or his or their Assessor, shall administer an Oath to such Voter, in the Form following :
“I A.B. do swear, [or, being a Quaker or Moravian, do solemnly affirm], That I will true Answers make to all such Questions as ' shall be here put to me by the Returning Officer or Officers, or ' his Assessor, [as the Case may be.] So help me GOD.”
And that if the Vote shall be allowed, the Returning Officer or Officers, or his or their Assessor, shall write down upon the Memorandum these Words, ' Allow this Vote;' and that if the Vote shall be disallowed, then the Returning Officer or Officers, or his or their Assessor, shall write down upon the Memorandum these Words, ' Reject this Vote ;' and that in either Case, the Returning Officer or Officers, or his or their Assessor, shall write down the Initials of his or their Name or Names under the Words so directed to be written down upon the Memorandum ; and the Returning Officer or Officers, or his or their Assessor, shall then deliver the said Memorandum to the same Assistant Deputy Clerk of the Peace who had brought it to him or them, to be forthwith carried back to the Returning Officer's Deputy; and that such Deputy shall either reject such Vote, or order the Poll Clerk to enter the same upon the Poll for the Candidate or Candidates to whom it had been given, according as he shall be directed by the Returning Officer or Officers, or his or their Assessor; and that every such Memorandum shall be preserved by such Deputy, and be delivered to him by; the Returning Officer or Officers, to be attached to the Poll Books at the Close of the Election ; and that the Form of the said Memorandum, so to be prepared as aforesaid, shall be as follows :
Provided always, that in case any Objection be taken to vote which shall not be in Substance different from one previously ruled by the Returning Officer or Officers, or his or their Assessor, or in case any Objection be taken which shall appear to such Deputy to be frivolous, or taken for the Purpose of Delay, that then in every such Case it shall not be lawful to and for the Deputy to transmit the Memorandum containing such Objection to the Returning Officer or Officers, and that in every such Case such Deputy shall admit the Vote so objected to, to be entered upon the Poll.