Cork students urged to make their voices heard in presidential election

An Coimisiún Toghcháin, Ireland’s independent electoral commission, will be visiting University College Cork and several college campuses around the country to encourage students to register and to make a plan to vote in this year’s presidential election on October 24.

An Coimisiún Toghcháin’s National Election and Democracy Study, which looked at the 2024 general election, found that people aged 18 to 34 years surveyed made up the biggest cohort of eligible voters (68%) who have yet to register, meaning that many missed the opportunity to vote in the most recent election.

An Coimisiún Toghcháin staff will be on the road, starting this week, answering questions about voting and urging students to register at checktheregister.ie before the October 7 voter registration deadline.

They will be on campus at UCC on September 25.

Eligible

In addition, students registered at their home address who are living elsewhere while attending an educational institution in the State are eligible to apply for a postal vote before the deadline of September 29.

“At Electric Picnic in August, we met so many young people who are engaged, interested, and want to use their votes to decide who will be our next president but who had questions about registration and voting,” said An Coimisiún Toghcháin chief executive Art O’Leary.

“Students are often not aware that if they are away from their registered home address on polling day because of college, they can apply to move their vote or apply for a postal vote.

“Roughly 60,000 young people have turned 18 since the last general election and many of them are now college freshers.

“We look forward to meeting them and registering them to vote in their first ever election.”