Parliamentary Elections Act 1695
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| Long title | An Act for the further regulating Elections of Members to serve in Parliament and for the preventing irregular Proceedings of Sheriffs and other Officers in the electing and returning such Members. |
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| Citation | 7 & 8 Will 3 c 25 |
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Status: Repealed
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| Revised text of statute as amended | |
The Parliamentary Elections Act 1695 (7 & 8 Will 3 c 25) was an Act of the Parliament of England regulating elections to the English House of Commons.
Section 3 of the Act required that an election to a county constituency had to take place at the county court, and that the court had to be held at the place where it had most often been held in the preceding forty years (in effect, at the county town). This was to prevent an electoral abuse where the county sheriff held the election at a place more convenient for voters favourable to one of the candidates.
Section 6 sought to prevent faggot voters by requiring that the a voter's forty shilling freehold was a bona fide holding and not a temporary conveyance.
Section 7 established the minimum voting age and age of candidacy as 21, which was the age of majority under common law. Underage MPs were seldom unseated before the Reform Act 1832: Vicount Jocelyn was 18 in 1806.
Section 8 provided that polling in Yorkshire, previously begun on a Monday, should instead begin on Wednesday. This was from a sabbatarian desire to prevent voters travelling on Sunday to the polling place.
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