uncancelled names of candidates, then the quota shall be made up of the votes polled for the said candidate, beginning at the last so polled which are otherwise equal as aforesaid, and so on to the earlier of such votes in the order of their reception as indorsed on the said voting papers;[1] and for the purpose of recording the said order, and of ascertaining which shall be taken to form the quota in case there shall be more than one polling places the polling places shall be distinguished by consecutive letters or marks; and the votes appearing by such indorsement to have been last received at every polling place consecutively, according to the said distinguishing numbers or marks, shall be first taken pari passu; but so much of the foregoing rule of appropriation as directs that the voting papers containing the smaller should be taken before those containing the larger number of names, shall be subject always to the provisions regarding locality and association contained in Clause XXIV. of this Act; and as soon as the quota of votes to be attributed to any candidate shall be thus ascertained, the voting papers making up the said quota shall be set apart by the returning officer (or by the registrar, as the case may be); and thereupon the name of the said candidate shall be cancelled on all the remaining voting papers, by being stamped across the same by a stamp of a form to be settled and provided by the registrars; and furnished by them to the returning officer for such use.
The duties of the returning officer in the appropriation of the voting papers are now at an end, and he has only to transmit the remainder to the registrar.
XX. The returning officers, after setting apart the number of voting papers which make up the quota, or respective quotas, of the candidate or candidates (if any) so returned as aforesaid, shall, as soon as possible after the close of the poll, transmit the remainder of the said voting papers; and if no candidate has obtained the said quota and been returned as aforesaid, then they shall transmit the whole of the said voting papers to the registrars respectively, by the hands of one of the sworn poll-clerks, or some other competent messenger, accompanied by a certificate of the names of the candidates for whom such votes are given, and the number of votes given to every candidate respectively, counting only the candidates first named, or first named after the cancelled name or names in the said voting papers, together with the total number of voting papers so transmitted, and the number of registered electors who have not polled at such election.
It is necessary to provide also for other new circumstances. The increase of constituencies by the admission of several hundred towns at present unrepresented, and perhaps of many ancient as well as modern corporations, of a public character,
- ↑ See p. 156.
