Electoral register must be updated as a matter of urgency claims councillor

The electoral register should be updated as a matter of urgency to include people who were wrongly deleted as well as removing the names of people long deceased from the official list of those eligible to vote, Cork County Council elected members agreed this week.

Raising the issue Fianna Fáil councillor Ian Doyle, from Charleville, said that another issue was the lack of understanding among young people regarding their inclusion on the register.

“I will fully acknowledge the work of the Franchise Department here in Cork County Council,” he said, pointing out that the process for adding your name to the register had changed in October 2022, making it easier to access and check.

“I still think there are gaps, there’s more funding from the department [of Local Government] needed for the Franchise Department here and there’s a couple of suggestions, one of which would be an education programme.

“The stark thing when we went door to door is that young people asked how do we register.”

His party colleague and member of the Cork Education and Training Board, Patrick Gerard Murphy, said the pandemic had been a factor in interrupting educational programmes geared to informing young people of their rights.

The independent councillor from Fermoy, William O’Leary, brought up the case of a grandmother who went to vote on June 7 but found she had been removed from the register.

Senior council official, Nicola Radley, told the meeting that the Franchise Department was working within the boundaries and parameters of a national system.

“We have requested some updates to the system, through the Electoral Commission and the LGMA (Local Government Management Association) and we fed in strongly to both of those and were told that improvements and amendments are forthcoming,” she said.

“Any deletions to the register, and I want to make this extremely clear, are only done with a reason, there is always a reason and a backup.”