Voters in Dublin Central and Galway West have until midnight to register to vote in byelections being held in each constituency on May 22nd.
An Coimisiún Toghcháin – the electoral commission – is holding a last-minute voter registration drive encouraging eligible people to check the Electoral Register and sign up before the deadline passes on Tuesday night.
The commission is visiting two Galway schools in An Cheathrú Rua and Carna to register new voters as well as running the last day of its voter registration pop-up shop in Eyre Square in Galway city.
It will visit Scoil Chuimsitheach Chiaráin in An Cheathrú Rua at 9am and Scoil Phobail Mhic Dara in Carna at 12.30pm.
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In a statement on Tuesday morning, An Coimisiún Toghcháin chief executive Art O’Leary said: “At every election, people turn up at the polling station ready to vote, only to be told that they haven’t added their name to the register or else their details are incorrect.”
“Don’t be that person, act today, check your details online at CheckTheRegister.ie. Your vote is your voice, check the register today to make sure that your voice is heard in these important byelections in Dublin Central and Galway West.”
Commission spokesman Brian Dawson, told RTÉ on Tuesday that it took less than five minutes to check the register and enrol if you had your correct details to hand.
He said each local authority is currently trying to clear up duplicate or redundant entries on the register and warned that as part of this process, human errors could potentially have incorrectly removed valid people from the register.
The electorate had reduced since the last general election, he said, but added that this was arising from increased accuracy rather than a real decrease in the numbers eligible to vote.
The line-up for the byelections was finalised on Friday, when the nominations window closed. Fourteen candidates are running in Dublin Central and 17 in Galway West.
The Dáil vacancy in the Dublin Central constituency arose after Fine Gael’s Paschal Donohoe resigned his seat in November to take a post at the World Bank in Washington.
The vacant Dáil seat in Galway West came about due to the election of former independent TD Catherine Connolly as president last October.
