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casual disturbance, which may easily be quelled by the interference of the police and special constables ? or, is it an organised attempt to hinder the progress of the election, and one which is likely to continue ? The course that the returning officer ought to take must depend upon the answer that he can give to such questions as these, upon examining the circumstances with as much equanimity as the excitement of the moment will allow. If he should refuse to adjourn the poll when there is a general and open riot, of such a nature as to prevent the business of the election from proceeding, he will render himself liable to be severely handled by the House of Commons, and the whole proceedings of the election may become null (a). If, on the other hand, he should hastily adjourn the poll on insufficient grounds, he will put the parties to very serious expense, and possibly aggrarate the disturbance and bad feeling that he was anxious to avoid. At Irish elections especially, where the returning officer may be called upon to act upon the information and fears of others, an additional degree of caution is required. The unnecessary adjournment of the proceedings, though it might in some cases expose the returning officer to the censure of the House, would not affect the validity of the election (6). Whenever the poll is adjourned by a deputy, he is required forthwith to give notice of such adjournment to the sheriff or other returning officer, When the poll has once been adjourned, it cannot be resumed again on that day.

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(a) Cases collected in Clerk on Elect. Com. 87.
(6) Roxburgh, F. & F.

Premature closing of the Poll.] It has been already pointed out that certain periods are prescribed in the statutes, during which the polling is to continue. The 16 Vict. c. 15, enacts, " that at English county elections, the poll shall commence at eight in the morning, and be kept open until five in the afternoon.” The language of 5 & 6 Wm. 4, c. 36, is different: it says the polling in the English boroughs shall commence at eight, and no poll shall be kept open later than four in the afternoon.

The 16 Vict. c. 28, s. 9, provides with regard to Scotch county elections, that no poll at any election for any county shall be kept open for more than one day, and that only between the hours of eight in the morning and four in the afternoon. The provision with regard to Scotch burgh elections is the same; 5 & 6 Wm. 4, c. 78, s. 5.

At Irish county elections the poll is to be kept open only between the hours of nine in the morning and four in the afternoon of the first day, and between the hours of eight in the morning and four in the afternoon of the second day, and no poll shall be kept open later than four in the afternoon of the second day ; 13 & 14 Vict. c. 68, s. 1. At Irish borough elections, the polling is to continue one day, and no poll is to be kept open later than five in the afternoon.

Such are the statutory provisions as to the duration of the poll ; and it is important to consider whether a returning officer might be justified under certain circumstances in closing the poll before the extreme limit had arrived. It will be observed that the Legislature has never used negative language on this subject; it has nowhere said, that the poll shall not be closed

sooner than four or five, as the case may be. It is said positively that no poll shall be kept open after a certain hour, but there is nowhere to be found, even in affirmative language, that the poll shall continue open until that hour. There can be no doubt that it is the duty of the returning officer not to do any act which may prevent a constituency from fully enjoying their franchise at an election. May he not, however, in certain cases, close the poll before the usual hour ?

The 2 Wm. 4, c. 45, s. 70, distinctly recognises such a power : “ Nothing in this act contained shall prevent any sheriff or other returning officer, or the lawful deputy of any returning officer, from closing the poll previous to the expiration of the time fixed by this act, in any case where the same might have been lawfully closed before the passing of this act.” The 13 & 14 Vict. c. 68, s. 18, contains the same proviso as to the duration of elections in Ireland. The 2 & 3 Wm. 4, e. 66, s. 32, provides that the poll may be closed at any place in Scotland before the termination of the time pointed out by the act, if all the candidates or their agents, and the sheriff shall agree in so closing it.

The question therefore arises, under what circumstances can the returning officer close the poll before the expiration of the appointed time? There can be no question that he can lawfully do so with the consent of all the candidates or their authorized agents. Again, if all the constituency were polled out, the poll might lawfully be closed. This, however, is not likely ever to occur in practice at the present day. Were one candidate at an election to have an overwhelming majority, and only a few electors remained unpolled, 80 few that they could not possibly affect the result of the election, and symptoms of serious riot and other violence began to show themselves, would the returning officer be justified in closing the poll, or must he, in the event of the riot breaking out before four o'clock, adjourn the proceedings and keep the poll open for another entire day? If an election had been so terminated before the passing of the Reform Act, upon notice being given, there seems to be no doubt that the election would have been considered valid, and there is no reason to suppose that the returning officer would have been censured (a). And it may well be doubted, whether an election would now be upset, when the poll was prematurely closed, if it appeared clearly that the result of the election was not in the least affected by it. This is a point which has been discussed on several occasions, since the passing of the Reform Act, before election committees. In the Limerick case, P. & K. 355, the committee determined that the proceedings of the sheriff in opening and closing the poll, at hours other than those prescribed by statute, were highly improper; but the committee have reason to believe that their conduct did not arise from any corrupt motive, and, further, that the result of the election was not affected by such proceedings, and they upheld the election.

(a) Before the 25 Geo. 3, c. 84, elections lasted sometimes as much as thirty-one days. By this statute they were limited to fifteen ; not that the returning officer was obliged to keep the poll open all that time-he could exercise a discretion against the wish of one side. Rochester, 2 Roe, 452 ; Orme on Elections, 41. Bristol case, Cor. & Dan. 73. This last case was very fully argued, and is quite at variance with the recent case of Harwich, 1851. See also Colchester, 1 Peck. 507; 2 Peck. 271, 430 ; post, 367.

In the Roxburgh case, F. & F. 503, it was moved in committee, that the election was null and void by reason of the adjournment and premature final close of the poll at Hawick, whereby the electors of that district were deprived of a portion of the period allowed by law for the exercise of their franchise, but it was negatived by six to three.

A case, that has created a good deal of comment, occurred in 1851, 2nd Harwich, P. R. & D. 314. The petition alleged that, the poll had been prematurely and unlawfully closed before the expiration of the time fixed by law, without any sufficient cause for, or notice of such closing; that a large number of voters remained unpolled, that several persons who would have roted for the unsuccessful candidate, were prevented from voting by the closing of the poll. The petition also complained that the proceedings were interrupted by riot, and that the poll ought to have been adjourned.

The majority of the sitting member was six; the numbers being 133 and 127, for the respective candidates. It was proved that the poll had been closed a very short time before four o'clock. Some of the witnesses said half a minute, others as much as three or four minutes before four (a). A voter was at the hustings at the time tendering his vote for the unsuccessful candidate, when a number of fishermen got upon the hustings and commenced pulling them down. The mayor and the poll clerks left the booth in consequence with the books, and the vote was not taken. The committee held the election to be void ; it is dif

(a) Print. Min. 2nd Harwich, 1851.

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