A lack of interest in politics, indecision and a belief a person’s vote does not matter were among factors cited in a new survey by registered voters who did not cast their ballot in last November’s general election.
The results of the survey conducted by Red C on behalf of An Coimisiún Toghcháin (the Electoral Commission) also suggest there is a high level of public trust in Ireland’s elections.
There were 1,426 survey respondents, 324 of which did not vote in the election. Of those who did not vote 37 per cent were not registered.
The main reason registered voters gave for not voting was being away from home on polling day. This explanation was cited by 30 per cent of such registered non-voters.
A further 27 per cent blamed work commitments, while 9 per cent pointed to illness or disability.
However, 12 per cent cited a disinterest in politics, and another 11 per cent said they were undecided about who to vote for. Some 6 per cent said their vote “doesn’t matter”.
Together these three reasons accounted for 29 per cent of the registered non-voters surveyed.
The Electoral Commission’s chief executive Art O’Leary said the data highlights the value of the organisation’s National Election and Democracy Study as an aid to learn more about the experience and perspectives of current and potential voters.
“We simply have to understand more about who non-voters are and why they are staying away from the polls,” he said in a statement, adding that the data will feed into other research projects and public engagement campaigns.
The commission pointed to other results from the survey, saying: “Encouragingly, at this challenging time for democracies globally the study indicates high levels of trust in the integrity of Ireland’s elections.”
The vast majority of respondents (94 per cent) agreed elections here are conducted per the law, while 88 per cent said they are well managed and that election officials are fair. All but 4 per cent of voters said they are confident their ballot papers were secret once they put then in the ballot box.
The study separately suggests Irish voters are knowledgeable about aspects of the voting and democratic process. but the commission said there is also “further work to be done”.
Nine out of 10 of respondents understood that every one of their candidate preferences in Ireland’s electoral system of proportional representation with a single transferable vote has the potential to count.
However, just over a third of respondents (36 per cent) said information about voting procedures is not widely available, and 51 per cent mistakenly thought they needed their polling card to vote.
The data for the commission’s National Election and Democracy Study was collected between December 2024, and February 2025.
