It is unnecessary to repeat the clause formerly introduced,[1] for the verification of the declared results of the poll, and for the preservation of, and means of reference to the voting papers subsequent to the election. Provisions for all these purposes are to be found in the rules appended to the Ballot Act. The secrecy of the vote now renders most of the suggestions on this point, in the preceding editions, inapplicable.
It is proper finally to provide for the possibility of a candidate being elected by a sufficient number of voters to make up the quota, and who yet may not be in a position on the poll of any particular constituency to entitle him to require that the returning officer shall return him as elected by it. Suppose, for example, that there were 700 different constituencies, and a candidate had three votes in every constituency, he might have the quota, or a comparative majority, but not a majority in any place. The supposed state of things is of course highly improbable, but there ought to be no possible defect in the operation of machinery designed to act perpetually, and under all circumstances. If any cases should arise, such as has been supposed, it may be left to be dealt with by the House, upon a form of proceeding which the candidate, or any of the electors interested, may be allowed to imitate.
XXVIII. When it shall appear by a certificate of the registrars that any candidate has polled such a number of votes as shall amount to the quota, or to a comparative majority, and he shall yet not be returned by any returning officer as a member to serve in Parliament; and such candidate, or any of the electors by whom he has been chosen, shall present a petition to the House of Commons stating such facts, and praying that he may be admitted as a representative, it shall be lawful for the House, upon hearing the said certificate of the registrar, to declare, by resolution, that the said candidate has been duly elected as a member of the said House, and that he shall be designated as an additional representative of the three constituencies in which he shall have polled a greater number of votes than in any other three constituencies, and if such numbers in so many several con-
- ↑ Sect. XXVIII., p. 197, 3rd ed.
