Be it enacted by the Governor, Council, and Assembly, as follows: SHORT TITLE. 1. This Chapter may be cited as "The Nova Scotia Short title. Elections Act. INTERPRETATION. 2. In this Chapter, unless the context otherwise Interpretation. requires, the following expressions shall be construed in the manner in this section mentioned: Election. Polling district. List of voters. Voters. Personal ex penses. Sub-division of polling division. One polling two hundred voters. "Election" means an election of a member to serve in the House of Assembly. "Polling District" means a polling district as constituted under this Chapter or under "The Nova Scotia Franchise Act. "List of Voters" means the certified copy of the list of voters for a polling district furnished to the presiding officer by the returning officer under this Chapter. "Voter" means any male person entitled to vote at any election under the provisions of this Chapter, or of "The Nova Scotia Franchise Act." "Personal Expenses" used with respect to the expenditure of any candidate in relation to the election at which he is a candidate, includes the reasonable travelling expenses of such candidate, and the reasonable expense of his living at hotels or elsewhere for the purpose of and in relation to such election. SUB-DIVISION OF POLLING DISTRICTS. 3. (1) The Sheriff of each County shall, as soon as the lists of voters for such county are deposited with the clerk or clerks of the municipal district or districts within such county, ascertain the number of voters entitled to vote at an election of members for the House of Assembly as shown by such lists in each polling district in such county. (2) If the number of such voters in any polling place to each district exceeds three hundred, the Sheriff shall divide such polling district into polling divisions in a convenient manner so that there shall be at least one polling division for every two hundred voters, and shall before the first of September next following such division set off the boundaries of each polling division so made by him. In cases of towns and cities where the voters in a polling district are numerous and near together, the Sheriff may make his sub-division of voters according to the alphabetical order of the voters, placing all the names from A to cities, polling L, both inclusive, in one sub-division, and all from Towns and M to Z, both inclusive, in another, and so on, placing district to be any number of voters within any alphabetical arrangement according as circumstances require. divided. more than voters. (3) If the number of such voters in any polling May divide if district does not exceed three hundred, the Sheriff three hundred may divide such polling district if in his opinion the remoteness of any body of such voters from the usual polling station renders such division desirable. (4) The Sheriff in dividing polling districts may, Parts of differif he deems it expedient or more convenient for may be invoters, include in any division parts of one or more divisions polling districts. (5) Where any polling district is divided by the Sheriff under this section, each division shall, for the purposes of this chapter, be deemed a polling district. RETURNING Officer. cluded in of returning 4. No commission shall be required for the appoint- Appointment ment of a person as returning officer at any election, officer. but the direction of a writ of election to a person named therein as returning officer shall be a sufficient appointment of the person as returning officer for the election. returning 5. Every writ of election shall be addressed to Sheriff to be the Sheriff of the County for which the election is to officer. take place, and he shall be the returning officer at the election. officer where vacant. 6. When a Sheriff has died or has been removed Returning from, or has resigned his office of Sheriff, and his office of sheriff successor has not been appointed, or where an investigation into the conduct of a Sheriff has been ordered by the Governor-in-Council, and such investigation is pending, the writ of election, which should otherwise have been addressed to the Sheriff, shall be addressed to such other person as the Governor-in-Council appoints as returning officer. Returning officer in case incapacity. 7. If the person to whom the writ should under of refusal or the foregoing provisions be addressed, or to whom the writ has been addressed, refuses to act, or is absent, or incapacitated or unable from sickness or any other cause, to act as returning officer, the Governor-inCouncil may appoint another person as returning officer. Persons excluded from acting as returning officer. Penalty. Persons exempted. 8. (1) None of the persons hereinafter mentioned in this section shall, in any case, be appointed or act as returning officer, or as election clerk, or as presiding officer, or as poll clerk, that is to say: 9. (a) Members of the Executive Council; (b) Members of the Parliament of the Dominion of Canada or of the Legislature of this Province; (c) Judges of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia and Judges of the County Courts; (d) Persons who have served in the Legislature of this Province as members of the House of Assembly or of the Legislative Council in the session next immediately preceding the election in question, or in the then present session, if the election takes place during a session of the Legislature; (e) If any one of the said persons is appointed to act, and acts as returning officer, or as election clerk or as presiding officer or as poll clerk, he shall be liable to a penalty of one hundred dollars. None of the persons hereinafter mentioned in this section shall, unless they are sheriffs, be obliged to act as returning officer, or as election clerk, or as presiding officer, or as poll clerk, that is to say: (a) Physicians and surgeons; (b) Postmasters; (c) Persons of the age of sixty years or upwards; (d) Persons who have previously served as refusal to act officer. 10. Every Sheriff and every other person having Penalty for the qualifications required by this chapter for acting as returning as returning officer, who refuses to perform the duty of returning officer at any election after having received the writ of election, shall, for such refusal, be liable to a penalty of two hundred dollars, unless such person, not being a Sheriff, and having a right to claim the exemption granted by the next preceding section, has in fact claimed exemption by letter, setting forth the grounds of such exemption, forwarded to the Provincial Secretary within two days next after the receipt of the writ of election. TWO OR MORE Vacancies at the Same Time. elections to be 11. Whenever two or more seats in the House of Polling at all Assembly become vacant at or about the same time, on same day. the election to fill such vacancies shall take place and be held on one and the same day, and the polling at all elections where polls have been granted shall also take place on one and the same day. . PROCEEDINGS AT ELECTIONS. (1) ISSUE OF WRITS. and length of 12. All the writs for a general election shall be Date of writs dated on the same day, and there shall be at least notice. forty days between the date and the return of such writs. date. 13. Every writ of election shall be dated and be Writ to fix returnable on such day as the Governor-in-Council determines. Council to fix nomination, 14. The Governor-in-Council shall fix the day Governor-infor the nomination of candidates, and shall, at every date of general election, fix one and the same day for the also of polling. nomination of candidates in all the counties, and the day so fixed for nomination shall be stated and inserted in the several writs in that behalf. |