'Make sure you can vote': KCC

The first obligation to make sure that people are on the Register of Electors is on the electors themselves, Kildare County Council says.

And the Council has appealed to people to make sure for themselves that they are properly on the Electoral Register.

Charlie Talbot says the Council believes the recent Referendum on the Lisbon Treaty did give people an impetus to make sure they were registered, a matter that was encouraged by the Council in a series of initiatives.

These included the identification of housing estates where there were only a small number of people registered and sending letters to the householders who weren’t.

An effort to identify and eliminate duplications in the Electoral Register was also undertaken, partly through establishing the dates of birth of those on the Register. This resulted in the identification of some 1,200 electors who had been registered twice in County Kildare. In addition, forms and posters were sent to the Principals of every second level school in the county to encourage students eligible to vote to actually register.

“We also put Registration Forms with the 500 or so application forms for Higher Education Grants which we sent out earlier this year. And we participate every year in the national advertising campaign in newspapers and on radio to make sure people know they should register.”