The right to vote was exercised by the 

freemen of the town, of whom by 1831 there were just 11,

even though in theory the custom was that every son of a freeman and every freeholder in the town
was entitled to his freedom. With so few voters, bribery was the rule rather than the exception,
though occasionally it became so blatant that the authorities were able to take steps against it. In
1700 an election at Winchelsea was declared void, an agent of one of the candidates arrested for
bribery by order of the House of Commons, and the representation of the borough suspended until
the end of the session. At another controversial election in 1712, the Commons committee which
investigated was told that voters had been bribed with £30 each to vote for the sitting MPs, and their
female connections[clarification needed] received additional payments of half a guinea (10s. 6d.) each.
Nor was the expense confined to bribing the voters. Oldfield records that in 1811, with only 11 voters
to poll, the Mayor demanded – and received – a fee of £200 for his services as returning officer.
However, he presumably carried out his duties more satisfactorily than his predecessor in 1624, who
was "brought to the bar [of the House of Commons], and on his knees severely reprimanded, and
sentenced to be committed to prison" for threatening some of the voters and corruptly excluding
some others from casting their votes.[1]