The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1864-11-29 00:00:00

SHOULD ALL VOTING PAPERS BE STAMPED?

Sta. —Oar municipal election took plane in Chelten•
ham on Honda., the 2lsl November, and for the first
time the met passed last session, initialed' An act to
groat certain duties of Custom and Inland Re
came into effect.
ad wised

The Clerk to the Board of
that body previous to the day uppointed forth. election
of its members, that "the voting papers will require a
wetly titian'', which may be denoted by.. adhesive
stamp, to be caum-Iled by th• color writing hie WM*, or
the initials thereof, upon or among the stamp, together
with the date •4 the day of clection." This being duly
adv. rtised in the loral papers created erne. astonish•
went, not only among the general public but the lawyers
of the town. Several have ileclared that they do not
read the act in the way Mr. William., the clerk, appears
to have don.; and th•t fact having been made known
to him, the learned gentlemen iiif•irmed the public that
Ito hod moutouni.ated with the Stamp.oflicie authorities
upon the matter, and they were of opinion (Mr. Timis
nod Mr. 111-ey) that there is no doubt about the re.
quirementa of the act. Every voter, thetefore had to
sea (or we &Mimi) • damp to the paler, and in 101S0
same where the date only, 111,1 not the initial., wens
written on the ,tamp the vote• were refused, or after.
wards ohjected to on 'mutiny.

so.. bir, se lii.itsi nudlst not merely of local
pat...or, I big to roll your anew ion to the enartment
In que-tociu : —'• taller Or power of attorsey,oomniimion,
factory mandate, or other instrument in the nature
ther.of, for the wile purpose of •ppointing, nominating,
or mutt...tieing to •.4.4 81 prosy or othereiaa, at ma
meeting of the proprietors or shareholder. of any joint
itark or °Our rompan • , or 01 the members of illy
socirty or institotinn, or of the contributors to
the fonds thereof, or at owe 'ocelot, of any body exercie
Mg it public /raw in the United Kingdom, or to vote at
outs pari.h meeting of limiters Or proprietor. of real or
heritable property in Pecitlsod—one penny." "Voting
Papers (that into say) any instrument, for the purpose of
noting by any person entitled to note at any meet-
ing as aforesaid, in any put of the United Kingdom,
one penny." Certainly to tlie non-legal mind there is
nothing in the foregoing calculated to Induce • belief in
the correctness of the decia on of the Sitamp-ofece
. . . .

authi•rities or thy proriety of the docisum given by
the desk to oar bound. Howevyr, perhats among your
many readers there may be some who can tell the people
of l'heltesiliam what hag been the practice in other
towns this year, and %bother, if the stamp must be
affixed, it in aloolutely nosoeseary that it should not
moody bear the date, bat the initials or the name of the
wore ; oleo wbvtber, 11 the stamp M impressed on the
.per (a.m.. such were tied), the eignature of the voter
should be written over it ; or whether, indeed, the rip-
quirtments of he act, as interpreted by Mr. Williams,
have been fulfilled anywhere else in the United King-
dom on the occasion of an election of improvement
coupnisainners. Moor thousands voted in this borough
on Monday. and besides the costa to candidate. (who
bad t And the stansw) the trouble and confallioll bare
been very great.—l am, Sir, yours, be.,