More people on register than are eligible to vote

Council reviewing report’s findings

There are more people on the election register in County Cavan than the population eligible to vote. That’s according to a report published last week. Cavan County Council has welcomed its publication and has said it will review its findings.

Issues at 11 local authorities, including Cavan, were identified by An Coimisiún Toghcháin, the independent electoral commission, which voiced deep concerned over legacy issues regarding accuracy on multiple electoral databases.

The discovery, including duplications, follows significant research on the matter.

All of the 11 local authorities with too many people on the register were seen as having “below average accuracy indicators”.

As a result, turnout at elections may be up to five per cent higher than official figures suggest.

Those with the lowest accuracy indicators in the country in order of over-registration were Sligo, Donegal, Galway County, Cork County, Carlow, Cavan and Mayo.

Coimisúin Toghcháin has requested access to a series of “unique identifiers” from local authorities for those on their registers, such as PPS numbers, dates of birth, and Eircodes.

National register

In a bid to modernise the process and minimise the risk of error, the Department of Housing and Local Government is meanwhile compiling a single national register, due to be completed in autumn 2026. The central database will be managed by Dublin City Council and each of the 31 local authorities will continue to maintain, generate and be legally responsible for its own register.

A spokesperson for Cavan County Council said that, over the past number of years, the local government sector has been “working to deliver on reforms” outlined in the Electoral Reform Act 2022.

“This includes facilitating rolling voter registration and enabling online applications. Since the Act was signed into law, local authority staff have processed more than 880,000 online applications and have reviewed and confirmed updates to more than a fifth of entries on the register.”

A key component of the Electoral Reform Act 2022 is the introduction of a “central shared database” or repository. Currently, there are 31 separate electoral registers with each local authority in charge of its own.

“The introduction of a central shared repository will mean that, for the first time in Ireland, the registration process will be supported by a single secured electoral register database. This will enable local authorities to reduce issues of duplicate/ erroneous records.”

The move will also “standardise data protection, security provision and data-sharing” across the sector.

“We welcome the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage’s announcement this week of additional funding as part of the electoral registration modernisation project. This will enable local authorities to hire additional staff to intensify work on electoral register data. This will allow us to continue to build on progress made since 2023 in preparation for the move to the new national electoral registration system next year.”