Last week the Court of Appeal gave a judgment which
puts an end to the " latchkey " vote. A latchkey occupier is one who rents rooms from a landlord who himself lives in the house. The Court of Appeal held that to retain his vote the occupier must be separately rated and himself pay the rates for his rooms. A landlord may of course compound for the rates of any number of tenants, and they will be entitled to vote so long as he does not live in the house with them. It does not seem to be known exactly how many latchkey voters there are, or what will be the effect of the judgment on the polls, or how many latchkey voters would or could qualify for a lodger's vote. it is suggested that the judgment may have some influence on the fortunes of the Conciliation Bill, as a proportion of the women whom it proposes to enfranchise would be latchkey voters.
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