Tuesday the final day to register to vote for Dublin and Galway by-elections

Vivienne Clarke

Tuesday, May 5th, is the last day to register to vote in the forthcoming by-elections in Dublin Central and Galway West on May 22nd.

The Electoral Commission is urging members of the public in those constituencies to check the electoral register to ensure they are registered to vote.

Brian Dawson of the Commission told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that it takes less than three minutes to get on the register.

“Alongside new voters, what we're really encouraging people to do is to check that their details are up to date. So maybe you've changed address, maybe your citizenship has changed.

“It's really important to take less than five minutes today, go on, check your details are correct, because otherwise you could miss out on the opportunity to vote on Friday, May 22nd.

“There's a constant process of checking and double-checking the electoral register, and indeed there's a modernisation process underway at the moment to make the register as accurate and as modern as possible.

“Just to be on the safer side, we always encourage people to go on to the website, checktheregister.ie, to make sure your details are correct, and that way when you show up at your polling station in Dublin Central, or Galway West in this case, you can be assured that your name will be there to be crossed off as you collect your ballot.”

Dawson acknowledged difficulties with the system, as at present there is not one electoral register for the country, but 31 electoral registers across the country’s local authorities, which could lead to duplication or inaccuracies.

“Each local authority at the moment is trying to check for duplicates, for people who've moved away, and maybe people who've also passed away, and just to make sure that those registers are as accurate as possible.

“But, obviously, human error does occur in certain situations, so what we're asking people to do is just to double-check. We don't want anyone to be surprised on polling day, so take a minute now, go to checktheregister.ie, and make sure your details are up to date.”

The ongoing “clean-up” of the electoral register by local authorities has meant that the numbers currently eligible to vote in Galway West are 103,000 and 57,000 for Dublin Central, he said.

“That's a very positive sign of the direction of travel of our electoral registers, that they're becoming more accurate, more precise, and more responsive to people moving in and out of the constituency.

“So, the figures compared to the recent general election, the electorate has decreased as such, but in reality, that's just an increased level of accuracy, which can only be a good thing.”