representatives to be chosen,[1] the product or quotient will be the maximum number of the constituency sufficient to secure the election of a member.
It will be convenient at this point to begin the draft of the proposed electoral law, with the clauses which specify the manner in which the quota or number of votes sufficient for the election of a member is to be ascertained and made known at every general election. They point out portions of the duties of the returning officers and registrars, and would fell within that part of the Treatise which describes those duties, but they are necessary in this place for the elucidation of that which follows. It may be assumed that at this stage of the election the registrars and their clerks assemble together, for a few days, at a central point—for which some town in Derbyshire, or the south of Yorkshire, may be more suitable than London.
Section I. The registrars at every general election, as soon as they shall have received the reports of the returning officers of the various constituencies in England, Scotland, and Ireland (to be transmitted to them as hereinafter mentioned), showing the number of votes polled in every constituency, shall compute and ascertain the total number of votes polled at such election, and shall divide such total number by 654, rejecting any fraction of the dividend which may appear after such division, and the number of the said quotient found by such division shall be the quota or number of votes entitling the candidates respectively, for whom such quota shall be given, to be returned at the said general election as members to serve in Parliament.
III. The registrars, as soon as practicable after the said quota has been found as aforesaid, shall make and jointly sign a declaration setting forth the total number of votes forming the aforesaid dividend, and the quotient
- ↑ Instead of forming this quotient by taking the total number of votes as the dividend, the dividend may be formed by adding together only the votes polled by so many of the candidates highest on the poll as shall be sufficient to fill the House. The effect of this variation, which by diminishing the quota would be in many respects an improvement, is shown in a note to Chapter IX., in the remarks on Clause XXV. of the proposed electoral law.
