Voters urged to bring polling cards and ID along to polling stations today

People are urged to bring their polling card and photographic IDs with them to polling stations today if they want to be guaranteed the chance to vote in the historic Eighth Amendment referendum.

The independent Referendum Commission, the Union of Students in Ireland, and other organisations made the plea in a bid to prevent any controversial refusals of voters in what has been labelled a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have a say on Ireland’s abortion laws.

Between 7am and 10pm today, a record number of young voters and as many as 3.2m registered voters of all ages — including 118,000 people voting for the first time — will visit polling stations nationwide.