Quick, Check The Register

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Last night.

On Virgin Media News at 8pm.

The station’s political correspondent Gavan Reilly explained that people who have registered to vote in Ireland in recent months may not be registered in time to vote.

Mr Reilly explained:

“It’s emerged in the last couple of hours that basically anyone who has registered to vote, certainly in the last eight months, will not actually have had their registration processed in time for general election.

“And that is on the presumption that the general election is going to take place on either February the 7th or 14th.

“The reason for that is that, by law, the new Register of Electors takes effect every year, legally, on February the 15th which is just after we expect the election to actually be.

“And that means that anyone who’s registered in the last couple of months, who thought they’d be registered in time for a general election, actually won’t have been because the register that will be in place for the forthcoming general election will be this year’s register and not next year’s one. And they’ll have been added to the wrong one.

Now, it’s not too late to get added to this year’s one. There is the opportunity to get added to what’s called a Supplementary Register.

“But there’s an extra complication which is you can’t get added to a Supplementary Register until the election has officially been called. And of course, as of now, it hasn’t actually been.

“So only when the election is called will it be possible for people who are already registered on the pretence that they thought they’d be in on time, to get registered for this year’s one. And the time will be of the essence as well because they’ll have to get registered two weeks before polling is actually going to take place.

“And it means you could have tens of thousands of people – 18-year-olds who might be registering for the first time who already thought they were in before they needed to be done who now could have a fairly frantic couple of days, trying to get all the paperwork in on time.”

Meanwhile…

Watch back in full here

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19 thoughts on “Quick, Check The Register

    1. Jonboy

      This attitude really gets my goat. The same people who sit around complaining about the government all year will then turn around at election time and say they’re not voting.

      TDs get elected by tiny margins, if you could convince 20 people to vote for your favorite candidate it could totally swing a seat. If you don’t like the candidates available to you then run yourself. if you can get a few thousand people to vote for you then your in. Democracy in action.

      The only barrier to democracy is your apathy.

      1. ReproBertie

        Didn’t a councillor win their seat by 1 vote on the 3rd or 4th recount in the last local elections?

      2. Rob_G

        Well-said, Jonboy – I can’t believe that someone that spends as much time as pat bellyaching online about various issues would espouse such a view.

      3. postmanpat

        Except I don’t complain about the government. They are “just there”. I get on with my own business. What if I vote for the wrong person? or the right person and they share power with someone I would have never have voted for?. I’ll stay out of it , thanks anyway. It’s not compulsorily. referendums are one thing but general elections are a crock of poo.

  1. dav

    Anyone have a look at changing your register address online?
    It has NO fields for apartment numbers or name and because of that if you input the eircode, it won’t accept the address!
    Marvelous

    1. Cian

      what are you talking about?
      can you provide a link to the website, perhaps? and then maybe you could get help.

      in theory an Eircode should relate to a single dwelling – so if you use it the address is not needed. Or, leave out the eircode and type in the address.

      1. Dav

        Can, by inputting the eircode the address fills in automatically, which is as it should be, except when the website does not provide for addresses that have an apartment number and apartment block, your address is missing 2 key bits of info. This is not a complaint about eircide, it’s about the electoral register online change your addresd

        1. Caroline. No.

          So what? If it comes through the main door with your name on it you will get it
          Stop whining about every single thing ye billy goat

          1. dav

            the front door.. of which apartment block, if you live in an area that has a number of blocks on the same site? Now you may be ok to wander around looking for your incorrectly addressed post, both others are not

        2. Cian

          All residential and business addresses have been given a unique new Eircode. Residential addresses include every address where post is delivered. Each house on a street, each flat in an apartment block, each unit in a duplex unit and each house in a rural townland has been given an Eircode

          Each apartment should have a different eircode.

          1. dav

            and it does, and wen you input the eircode on a proper website the FULL address is prefilled. Now imagine a website that does not Allow for a FULL address. Imagine a website that does not provide for an address that is outside the standard House Number/Name, Street, Town, County. When you ask it to use eircode and prefill an address with an apartment number, it does not compute. It doesn’t know where to put that piece of information as there is no fild to put it into. It spazzes out and declares that the eircode is wrong (when it clearly is not). That is, in my humble opinion, unacceptable.

          1. dav

            not an argument Cian but thanks for playing.

            Listen do you think that the voters roll website should allow for people living in apartments yes or no?
            If yes, surly they should provide enough space on their address fields for such info.

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