I previously wrote about how a handful of votes in a handful of constituencies will decide the next election. I took us on a little tour of the Irish PR system, explaining why your fourth and fifth preferences can make the difference between success or failure for a candidate. And I gave a link to a printable version of the Irish voter registration form.
Now I thought I’d add another tool to your voter registration kit- a link to a list of city and county councils. Click on yours and up pops a simple form to let you check if you’re currently registered. One suggestion: this eReg system ought to have its own webpage, instead of directing you through the various county councils sites.
Update: I spoke to on official in the Franchise Section in the Department of Environment. She said that it was intended to have a one stop shop website where you could check if you were on the register anywhere in the country without having to go through your local authority. The Local Authority Computer Services Board intends that this site should be ready by November 2006. They won’t follow through on the next step (allowing you to register, or even print out a relevant registration form) until a later date.
1 Comment
This is a not bad piece of functionality. However it does not support ‘fuzzy’ searching and is prone to error in inputting details (such as variations in spelling of townlands etc). It is a good start.
However – please note that the register process only seems to accept that people change address. Changing your name seems to be something people don’t do. So it fails to handle ‘life events’ such as marriage, divorce/seperation, or changes of name by deed poll.
Will ponder further and put a post up on obriend.info as soon as I get everything over there fixed up after the move from obriend.com/blog