305Form of ballot-papers

#### 305 Form of ballot-papers 305 Form of ballot-papers > > (1) The returning officer is to have ballot-papers printed for the election and is to provide a sufficient number of ballot-papers to be initialled and used for the election. > > > (2) Every ballot-paper must contain a mark— > > > > > (a) in relation to an election administered by an electoral services provider—that bears the name of the council, or > > > > > (b) in relation to an election administered by the Electoral Commissioner—that has been determined by the Electoral Commissioner. > > > (3) In printing the ballot-papers for an election in which there are no groups, the names of the candidates are to be printed in one column (starting at the top) in the order determined as referred to in section 302. > > > (4) In printing the ballot-papers for an election— > > > > > (a) in which there is only one group, the names of candidates included in that group are to be printed in a group before the names of candidates, if any, not included in that group, and > > > > > (b) in which there are 2 or more groups, the names of candidates included in the groups are to be printed in groups across the ballot-papers (starting from the left side) in the order determined as referred to in section 302, before the names of candidates, if any, not included in any such group, and > > > > > (c) the order, within a group, in which the names of candidates in that group are to be printed in the ballot-papers is the order specified in the claim made by them under section 308A of the Act, and > > > > > (d) the names of candidates, if any, not included in any group are to be printed as a group, without any identification referred to in subsection (5), on the ballot-papers in the order determined as referred to in section 302. > > > (5) In printing the ballot-papers, each group (and each group voting square relating to the group) is to be identified by the word “Group” followed by a successive letter of the English alphabet, starting with the letter “A”, and if there are more than 26 groups each group (and each group voting square relating to the group) after the twenty-sixth is to be identified by such symbol as may be determined by the election manager. > > > (6) If 2 or more persons have been endorsed by a political party as candidates in an election and a claim has been made to include the names of those candidates in a group on the ballot-papers, the following requirements apply to the printing of the ballot-papers— > > > > > (a) the name of the party by which each candidate was endorsed is to be printed adjacent to the name of that candidate on the ballot-papers, > > > > > (b) if all the candidates were endorsed by the same party and a group voting square is printed on the ballot-papers in relation to the candidates—the name of the party is to be printed on the ballot-papers adjacent to that square, > > > > > (c) if an application under section 321 of the Act included a request that a composite name be printed on the ballot-papers adjacent to the candidates’ group voting square—the composite name is to be printed on the ballot-papers adjacent to that square. > > > (7) The ballot-papers must show as the names of the candidates the names under which they were nominated. The names may be accompanied by descriptions or additions to distinguish them from each other in any case where a similarity in the names of 2 or more candidates is, in the opinion of the returning officer, likely to cause confusion. > > > (8) For an election in which there are no groups, the ballot-papers are to be in Form 4. For an election in which there are one or more groups but no group has a group voting square, the ballot-papers are to be in Form 5. For an election in which there are one or more groups and one or more groups has a group voting square, the ballot-papers are to be in Form 6. > > Note. > > Section 323 of the Act requires the name of a party or the word “Independent” to be printed as well in certain circumstances.