County Electors Act 1888
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
County Electors Act, 1888
(51 & 52 Vict.) CHAPTER 10.
An Act to provide for the Qualification and Registration of Electors for the purposes of Local Government in England and Wales.
[16th May 1888]
H HEREAS it is expedient to make provision with respect to the qualification and registration of electors of any representative bodies (in this Act referred to as ‘county authorities’) which may be established under any Act of the present session of Parliament for the purposes of local government in counties in England:
Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
1 Short title and construction.
1. This Act may be cited as theCounty Electors Act, 1888.
The Registration Act, 1885, and the Parliamentary Registration Acts within the meaning of that Act, are in this Act referred to as the Registration of Electors Acts, and together with this Act may be cited as the Registration of Electors Acts, 1843 to 1888.
This Act shall be construed as one with the Registration of Electors Acts.
2 Extension of burgess franchise to county electors outside municipal boroughs.
(1)2.—(1.) For the purpose of the electors of county authorities in England, the burgess qualification, that is to say, the qualification enacted by section nine of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882 , shall extend to every part of a county not within the limits of a borough, and a person possessing in any part of a county outside the limits of a borough such burgess qualification, shall be entitled to be registered under this Act as a county elector in the parish in which the qualifying property is situate.
(2) (2.) Sections nine, thirty-one, thirty-three, and sixty-three of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, and any enactments of that or any other Act affecting the same, shall extend to so much of every county as is not comprised within the limits of a municipal borough in like manner as if they were herein reenacted, with the substitution of ‘county’ for ‘borough’ and of ‘county elector’ for ‘burgess,’ and with the other necessary modifications.
3 Occupation of land of the value of 10l to qualify.
3. Every person who is entitled to be registered as a voter in respect of a ten pounds occupation qualification within the meaning of the provisions of the Registration Act, 1885, which are set out in the schedule to this Act, shall be entitled to be registered as a county elector, and to be enrolled as a burgess, in respect of such qualification, in like manner in all respects as if the sections of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, relating to a burgess qualification included the said ten pounds occupation qualification.
4 Registration of county electors.
(1)4.—(1.) The Registration of Electors Acts shall, so far as circumstances admit, apply to the enrolment of burgesses in a municipal borough to which the Parliamentary and Municipal Registration Act, 1878 , does not apply, and to the registration of county electors within the meaning of this Act; and the lists of burgesses, and of county electors, and of occupation voters for parliamentary elections, shall, so far as practicable, be made out and revised together; and the Registration of Electors Acts shall accordingly—
(a ) apply to every such municipal borough in like manner as if it were a borough to which sub-section two of section six of the Registration Act, 1885, applied (sub-section one of which section is hereby repealed), and revising assessors for such borough shall not be elected; and
(b ) apply to every parish not situate in a municipal borough, in like manner as if such parish were a municipal borough to which the Parliamentary and Municipal Registration Act, 1878, applies, and the said lists of county electors and of occupation voters for parliamentary elections in such parish shall be made out in divisions, as provided in the said Act: Provided that a person whose name appears in any list of county electors or burgesses in a county may object to the name of any other person on a list of county electors or burgesses for a parish in that county, and may oppose the claim of a person to have his name inscribed in any such list.
(2) (2.) In the construction of the Registration of Electors Acts for the purpose of their application to a parish not situate in a municipal borough, there shall be made the variations following, and such other variations as may be necessary for carrying into effect the application, that is to say:—
(a .) Where such parish is not within a parliamentary borough, ‘parliamentary county’ shall be substituted for ‘parliamentary borough;’
(b .) Where such parish is not within a parliamentary borough, the clerk of the peace shall perform the duties of and be substituted for the town clerk; but any notice required to be given to the town clerk by section twenty-seven of the Parliamentary and Municipal Registration Act, 1878, relating to the withdrawal and revival of objections, shall be given to the overseers and not to the clerk of the peace;
(c .) County elector shall be substituted for burgess;
(d .) Section nine of the Parliamentary and Municipal Registration Act, 1878, shall not apply to any parish which is not wholly situate in an urban district;
(e .) Where such parish is not within a parliamentary borough section twenty-one of the Parliamentary and Municipal Registration Act, 1878, shall not apply, and the lists and register of voters shall be made out alphabetically, but shall be framed in parts for polling districts and electoral divisions and for urban districts and for wards of urban and rural districts in such a manner that the parts may be conveniently compiled or put together to serve as lists for polling districts, and elections in urban districts and as electoral division or ward lists;
(f .) Where such parish is within a parliamentary borough—
(i) the overseers shall send to the clerk of the peace for the county two copies of the lists of voters at the same time at which they send copies to the town clerk; and
(ii) the town clerk shall cause to be printed such number of copies of the revised lists as the clerk of the peace may require, and shall transmit the same to the clerk of the peace, who shall deal with the same as with other lists of county electors in his county; but,
(iii) save as aforesaid, the clerk of the peace shall not act in relation to the registration of county electors in the said parish, and the town clerk of the parliamentary borough shall be the town clerk within the meaning of the Registration of Electors Acts and this Act in relation to such parish, and shall include in his precept to the overseers proper directions respecting the registration of the county electors within the meaning of this Act.
(g .) The lists of occupation voters and county electors shall be revised by the revising barrister for the parliamentary borough or county in which such parish is situate, and the revising barrister for revising the county electors lists for the whole or any part of an electoral division of any county shall, if so required by the county council, hold a court in that electoral division or at some convenient place in a division adjoining thereto.
(h .) The guardians of a union which is not wholly comprised in an urban district may, with the consent of the overseers of any parish or parishes within their union for which an assistant overseer has not been appointed, annually appoint a fit person to act as registration officer for such parish or parishes, and may remove any such person, and fill up any vacancy caused by death, resignation, or otherwise. Such registration officer shall perform all the duties of overseers of...
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