Public Health Act 1875

Qualification of Electors, Scale of Voting, and Register of Owners.

10 The word owner, when used in relation to the right of voting at any election of a local board, shall mean any person for the time being in the actual occupation of any kind of property in the district or part of a district for which he claims to vote, rateable to the relief of the poor, and not let to him at a raekrent, or any person receiving on his own account, or as mortgagee or other incumbrancer in possession, the raekrent of any such property.

11 A person shall not be deemed a ratepayer or be entitled to vote as such at any such election unless he .has been rated to the relief of the poor in the district or part of a district for which he claims to vote for the space of one-whole year immediately preceding the day of tendering his vote, and has also before that day paid all rates made on him for the relief of the poor in such district or part of a district for the period of one whole year, and all rates due from him under this Act, except rates which have been made or become due within the six months immediately preceding.

12 Owners of and ratepayers in respect of property situated within the district for which the election is held shall be entitled to vote according to the scale following; (that is to say,)

• If the property in respect of which the person is entitled to vote is rated to the poor rate on a rateable value of less than fifty pounds, he shall have one vote: if such rateable vaiue amounts to fifty pounds and is less than one hundred pounds, he shall have two votes ; if it amounts to one hundred pounds and is less than one hundred and fifty pounds, he shall have three votes; if it amounts to one hundred and fifty pounds and is less than two hundred pound ; he shall have four votes; if it amounts to two hundred pounds and is less than two hundred and fifty pounds, he shall have five votes; and if it amounts to or exceeds two hundred and fifty pounds, he shall have six votes.

13 Any person who is owner and also bonk fide occupier of the same property shall be entitled to vote both in respect of such ownership and of such occupation.

14 Owners may give their votes either personally-or by proxy.

15 The instrument appointing a proxy shall be in writing under the hand of the appointer, or where the appointer is a corporation under their common seal, or where the appointer is a body of persons unincorporate under the hands of three directors or other persons having the direction or management of the undertaking or business carried on by such body of persons ; and every such instrument shall be attested by a witness, and may be in the form M. in schedule IV. to this Act.

16 No member of a corporation or of any such body of persons (other than a partnership firm consisting of not more than six persons) shall be entitled to vote individually as owner in respect of property belonging to such corporation or body of persons.

17 Partners in a firm consisting of not more than six persons may vote as owners in respect of property of the firm as if that property were equally divided among the partners.

18 An owner or a proxy shall not (except at the first election of a local board constituted after the passing of this Act) be entitled to have a voting paper delivered to him as such unless his name is on the register herein-after mentioned.

19 The local board shall cause a register to be made and kept, in which shall be entered the names addresses and qualifications of the owners claiming and entitled to vote, and the names or descriptions addresses and qualifications of the appointers of proxies, and the names and addresses of proxies duly appointed.

Any such register made before the passing of this Act shall be deemed to be a register or part of a register under this Act.

20 A claim by an owner or proxy to be entered on the register shall state his name and address within the district, and a description of the nature of the interest or estate in the property giving the qualification, and a statement of the amount of all rent service (if any) received or paid in respect thereof by him or the body of persons for whom he is proxy, and of the persons from whom or to whom the same is received or paid; and in the case of a proxy the claim shall be accompanied by the appointment of the proxy or an attested copy thereof.

21 A claim by an owner or proxy may be made by writing in the form L. in schedule IV. to this Act.

22 A person entitled to vote either as owner or ratepayer may object to the keeping of any name on the register by writing in the form L. in the said schedule.

23 Claims and objections shall be sent to the chairman of the local board on some one of the first six days of March, and a claim or objection sent at any other time shall not be admitted by the chairman.

24 A person making an objection shall also give written notice thereof to the person objected to by leaving the same at the address within the district of that person.

25 The chairman shall between the twentieth of February and the first day of March, publish a notice, in the form L. in schedule IV. to this Act, and signed by him, of the time within which claims and objections are to be made as aforesaid, and shall cause a copy of such notice to be inserted in some local newspaper circulating in the district and to be affixed at the places where parochial notices are usually affixed.

26 The chairman on the expiration of the time for sending in claims and objections shall with the assistance of such persons (if any) as the local board may appoint, proceed forthwith to revise the register by entering thereon the names of the persons who have claimed and are proved to his satisfaction to be entitled to vote as owners or proxies respectively, and the other particulars by this schedule required to be entered with respect to owners and proxies, and by expunging from the register the names of owners and proxies who are proved to his satisfaction to be dead or to have ceased to be entitled to vote.

27 For the purpose of enabling the chairman to determine the validity of claims and objections he may examine such persons and call for such evidence from the persons making the same as he may think fit; any person may tender himself to be examined; but no person shall be entitled to be examined or to be heard before the chairman in support either of a claim or an objection.

28 Not later than the sixteenth of March the chairman shall close the revision and sign the revised register, and that register shall continue in force for the twelve months next ensuing.

29 If the chairman is unable or unwilling to conduct the revision of the register, the local board shall appoint some person to conduct the revision, and in default of such appointment the revision shall be conducted by the clerk to the local board. Any person so appointed or the clerk shall for the purposes of the revision have the same powers and duties as the chairman of the local board.

30 The register shall be open to the inspection of candidates and other persons interested in any election or in any question at which any such owner or proxy claims to vote, subject to such rules as the local board may prescribe for the prevention of loss injury or disorder.

31 At the first election of a local board constituted after the passing of this Act an owner or proxy shall be entitled to have a voting paper delivered to him if not less than fourteen days before the last day appointed for delivery of the voting papers he sends a claim in writing to the returning officer containing such particulars as are herein-before required to be contained in claims to be entered on the register of owners and proxies.