50Provisions related to section 48

#### 50 Provisions related to section 48 (1) Notwithstanding any arrangement in force under section 48, a visit under that section to a patient in a hospital shall not be made if the presiding officer is informed by a registered medical practitioner or a member of the staff of the hospital that such a visit is forbidden, on medical grounds, by a registered medical practitioner. (2) Literature relating to a referendum may be supplied to the general office of a hospital to which section 48 applies, and any literature so supplied shall be made available on request to patients entitled to vote under that section. (2A) A presiding officer who visits a patient under section 48 may, at the request of the patient, give the patient literature relating to the referendum. (3) So far as is practicable, a vote under section 48 shall be taken as if it were taken under the other provisions of this Act (including the provisions relating to absent voting) and, in particular, in the application of this Act for the purposes of subsection 48(5), this Act has effect as if: (a) a person who, with the approval of an appropriate person on the staff of the hospital, enters or remains in a room, ward or other place in the hospital at a time when, under that subsection, it is to be treated as if it were a part of a polling booth were, for the purposes of section 135, doing so by permission of the presiding officer there present; (b) paragraph 35(a) were omitted and the following paragraph were substituted: “(a) mark his or her vote on the ballot paper in a manner that ensures the secrecy of the vote;”; (c) paragraph 35(c) were omitted; and (d) the words “enter an unoccupied compartment of the booth with the voter, and” were omitted from subsection 36(1). (4) Subsections 131(1) and (1A) and 132(1) apply in relation to a hospital that is a polling place as if: (a) the references in those subsections to voting day for the referendum, or a day to which the taking of votes of the electors at a referendum has been adjourned under section 42 or 43, were a reference to the period: (i) commencing on the day of the issue of the writ for the referendum; and (ii) ending immediately after the voting day or, if the voting is adjourned, after the last day to which the voting is so adjourned; and (b) the references in those subsections to a polling booth were references to the hospital. (5) Where an elector has voted under section 48 at a referendum, any postal ballot paper received by the Divisional Returning Officer that is, or that purports to be, a postal ballot paper of the elector shall not be admitted in the scrutiny in relation to the referendum. (6) The DRO for a Division must cause to be published on the Electoral Commission’s website, and in any other way the DRO considers appropriate, a notice specifying: (a) the hospitals in the Division that are polling places; and (b) the periods during which votes will be taken under section 48 at each hospital. (6A) The notice must be published not later than 4 pm on the day before voting day. (7) As far as is reasonably practicable, votes taken under section 48 shall be taken on the day or days and at the time or times specified in the relevant notice under subsection (6), but any failure to take those votes in that manner does not invalidate the result of the referendum.