nterfoil of the paper which remains
with the officer. This counterfoil is also marked with the voter's number
on the register, so that the vote may be identified on a scrutiny; and a
mark on the register shows that the voter has received a ballot-paper. The
voter folds up the paper so as to conceal his mark, but to show the stamp
to the officer, and deposits it in the box, which is locked and sealed, and
so constructed that papers cannot be withdrawn without unlocking it. Papers
inadvertently spoiled by the voters may be exchanged, the officer
preserving separately the spoiled papers. If a voter is incapacitated from
blindness, or other physical cause, or makes before the officer a
declaration of inability to read, or when the poll is on a Saturday
declares himself a Jew, the officer causes the paper to be marked as the
voter directs, and keeps a record of the transaction. A voter who claims to
vote after another has voted in respect of the same qualification, obtains
a (green) paper which is not placed in the box, but preserved apart as a
"tendered" paper. He must, however, declare his identity and that he has
not already voted. The presiding-officer at the close of the poll has to
account to the returning-officer for the papers entrusted to him, the
number being made up by--(1) papers in the box, (2) spoiled papers, (3)
unused papers and (4) tendered papers. During the voting (for which
schoolrooms and other public rooms are available, and for which a separate
compartment must be provided for every 150 electors entitled to vote at a
station) agents of candidates are allowed to be present in the
polling-station, but they, as well as the officials, are sworn to secrecy
as regards who have voted, and for whom; and they are prohibited from
interfering with the voter, inducing him to show his vote, or attempting to
ascertain the number on the back of the paper. These agents are also
present with the returning-officer when he counts the papers and the votes,
rejecting those papers--(1) which want the official mark _on the back_; (2)
on which votes are given for more candidates than the voter is entitled to
vote for; (3) on which anything except the number on the back is marked or
written by which the voter can be identified; (4) which are unmarked, or so
marked that it is uncertain for whom the vote is given. The counted and
rejected papers, and also the "tendered" papers, counterfoils and marked
register (which have not been