Council clarifies 'write-in'

Kildare County Council has clarified a suggestion that a number of voters who complained that they were not on the Register were 'written in'.

"We were approached by a number of people in the days prior to polling day," Council spokesman Charlie Talbot confirmed to the Diary during this morning's count at Ryston. "In most cases they said they had sent in their documentation but the changes to the Register hadn't been done. We checked, and where we found that the issue was inconclusive, or where we had made an actual error ourselves we did 'write in' the people concerned."

He said no would-be voter who complained on polling day itself had been written in.

"Our objective was to make sure as many people as possible had their vote," Charlie Talbot said. "Writing some of those in was in our view a matter of simple justice."

Brian Byrne.