WAR MEMOIRS OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 1917

208 WAR MEMOIRS OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE
The chief of these unanimous recommendations were
the following:
The Register of voters should be revised and brought up
to date every six months. The Clerk to the Local Authority
(Borough or County Council) should be Registration Officer,
and the cost of registration should be borne equally by the
rates and the Exchequer.
The ordinary qualification for a vote should be six
months' residence in the constituency. Plural voting was not
to be altogether abolished, but closely cropped. One vote in
a second constituency (apart from the residence vote) might
be exercised, in respect either of a qualification as a University
voter, or of the occupation of business premises in a
constituency other than that where the voter resided.
Proposals were made for a redistribution of seats, and
for their grouping as far as possible in constituencies of between
three and five members, in which elections should
take place by the method of Proportional Representation.
The representation of Universities was to be retained.
All elections should take place on one day. Returning
officers' expenses should be paid by the Exchequer. Candidates
should be required to make a deposit of £150, liable
to forfeiture if they polled not more than one eighth of the
votes cast. A reduced maximum scale of candidates' permissible
expenses was laid down, and other suggestions made
for amending the Corrupt Practices Act.
Men serving with His Majesty's Forces should be entitled
to registration as voters in the constituency where they had
their home.
In addition to these unanimous recommendations, there
were a few on which unanimity could not be attained, but
which were adopted by a majority. Among them were the
partial removal of disability for electors who had received
Poor Law relief; the proposal that in single-member con-