5,000 voters sign up to supplementary register

MORE than 5,000 people registered to vote in Cork for Friday’s election in the few weeks during which the supplementary register was opened. A further 1,500-plus people have added their names to the electorate in Kerry constituencies.

Within Cork City Council’s boundary alone, the numbers who signed up late to vote were up from just over 900 ahead of the May 2007 general election to 1,500 in the period up to February 8 when the supplementary registers closed for all 43 constituencies.

The registers are maintained by city and county councils, but the electorate for some constituencies which straddle city and county boundaries are based on figures combined by neighbouring local authorities.

All five Cork constituencies have a total of 376,416 voters, which is 5,125 more than when the 2011 register was closed last November.

After the official register closes each year, unregistered voters can apply to have their names added up to 15 days before an election.

The numbers eligible to vote in Cork South Central has jumped 1,575 or 1.7% as a result of the supplementary register. This brings it to just over 90,000 and includes a 977-person (2.2%) rise in the city part of the constituency, where half of the electorate lives, and 598 or 1.3% more in the county area.

Cork North Central is similarly split between city and county, with a little under 41,000 of the 75,302 eligible voters registered with Cork County Council, including 516 on the supplementary register. The 554 who added their names to the register through Cork City Council, up from 322 before the 2007 ballot, is a 1.6% rise on the 33,906 people who were already registered.

The smallest rise of the Cork constituencies is the 946 (1.1% more) people who joined the Cork East register, bringing the electorate in the four-seater to 83,658.

Just under 800 people are on the supplementary register for Cork South West, meaning 62,967 people are eligible to vote. Cork North West’s electorate of 62,870 includes 741 people on the supplementary register.

Almost 900 people have joined the electorate in Kerry South on the supplementary register, bringing its electorate to 58,631. Kerry County Council has added 665 (1.3%) to the 51,957 listed on the register in November towards the electorate for Kerry North-Limerick West.