80 OBSERVATIONS ON THE HARE SYSTEM 



Answer. — It renders the voter's influence useless in the 

 determination of the fate of other candidates should his 

 own three preferences, without his aid, obtain a quota, or, 

 otherwise, be excluded, or eliminated, from the poll. Such 

 useless papers are said to be "exhausted. 1 ' No less than 

 200 votes, representing 7 per cent, nearly of all votes 

 polled, were rendered useless in this way by the voters' 

 self-imposed sacrifice of his own right or privilege. This 

 is a matter which demands more serious consideration, as 

 nearly twice the voting force of all the invalid papers (104) 

 were practically lost in the determination of the elections. 

 It is natural to suppose that the ordinary voter's interest 

 diminishes after his first three favourites are chosen in 

 their order of preference. But it should be borne in mind 

 that a further extension of indication of preference might 

 be serviceable to the voter in excluding those whom he 

 thought least desirable as representatives; for the order 

 1, 2, 3, need not be regarded as the index of favour. It is 

 just as serviceable in determining order of dislike, No. 1 

 being regarded as the candidate who is least in disfavour ; 

 the others, in sequence, being regarded as next in order of 

 greater disfavour. 



Seventh Query. — How far was the voting force as a whole 

 reduced by invalid or defective ballot-papers ? — and what 

 was the nature of the defects which rendered the papers 

 invalid ? 



Answer. — The voting force lost to the elections at 

 Hobart by reason of invalid papers is represented by 104 

 ballot-papers, equivalent to 3*65 per cent, of all ballot- 

 papers. The following is a summary of the defects : — 



Per cent. 

 No. No. to total 

 Defective preference numbering 45 ballot-paper. 



Defective or unrecognisable 

 figures 4 



49 1-72 



Disfiguring or blank papers 1 



Illegal marking and scoring ... 52 

 Adding signature 2 



55 193 

 Total invalid papers 104 3*65 



Only 61 of these invalid papers can be traced to their 

 first preference, and of these 46 were lost to successful 

 candidates, and 15 were lost to the unsuccessful candidates, 



