Centralised printing 'causes confusion'

POLLING CARDS:THE DEPARTMENT of the Environment has been accused of causing "huge confusion" among voters by centrally printing polling cards for the Lisbon Treaty referendum and combining them with information booklets.

In recent days, politicians have received calls from constituents who say they have not received their polling cards after the department decided to centralise the printing system.

The printing of polling cards is usually arranged at local authority level by returning officers.

At the last referendum this procedure was followed and the information on the wording of the referendum was sent in a separate booklet.

However, for Friday’s referendum the department decided the polling card and information leaflet would be combined.

The Office of Public Works procured Walsh Colour Print, Co Kerry, to print 3.3 million booklets. Mailing companies Business Print and Sooner than Later, both based in Dublin, were employed to use databases supplied by the local authorities to address the booklets and An Post was to deliver them.

A spokesman for the OPW said centralising the printing and combining the cards with the booklets saved €1.7 million.

Fine Gael TD Olivia Mitchell said she has been inundated with calls from voters reporting that they have no polling card. The decision to print centrally was a disaster, she said. “There were delays at both the printing and distribution stage due to the volumes involved and many people have not yet received a polling card.”

She added that the changed format caused huge confusion with voters, many of whom assumed the leaflet was just another information leaflet and simply threw it away.

Fianna Fáil TD Chris Andrews also said he had received several calls about polling cards.

People who didn’t receive such a card are still entitled to vote once they bring photographic identification to their local polling stations.

Walsh Colour Print, Business Print, Sooner than Later and An Post said they were not aware of any problems with the printing or distribution of the booklets.

They said they had completed their contracts on time.