Govt to examine council threat to disenfranchise 19,000 voters

A Government minister is to examine how a council came to issue warning notices to almost 20,000 people threatening to remove their right to vote.

Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council sent letters to 19,000 people during December warning they faced having their names removed from the draft electoral register.

But the council moved to withdraw the notices amid fears hundreds of people could turn up at the Claims Court in Dublin today.

Environment Minister Dick Roche requested the council submit a full report on the preparation of the electoral register ahead of the forthcoming election.

“In light of recent reports relating to the registration work in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, I am requesting a specific assurance from the council that they will meet the objective of a more accurate and comprehensive Electoral Register for the county,” he said.

The problem arose after the council wrote to 19,000 voters on December 22 last stating if they did not write to the county registrar in advance, or turn up in person at the registrar’s office in Inns Quay in Dublin by 11am today they may be struck off the electoral register.

A small number of people today turned up at the Claims Court – a branch of the Circuit Court – on the back of the letters. The council is also believed to have received a large number of letters from people worried they would be removed from the register.

The council wrote to the 19,000 voters who failed to respond to their door-to-door enquires and documentation sent out over confirming their details for the electoral register.

However, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council has moved to reassure people who received the statutory notice that their names would not be deleted from the Draft Register of Electors.

“Acting on legal advice we will only delete names where documentation has been returned to the County Council as ’Gone Away’, ’Not known’ etc, where the voter is deceased, or to resolve duplicate entries,” Rita Flynn, senior executive officer of the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, said.

“We urge electors to check the Electoral Register when it is published on February 1. People who have not been included on the Register to date, can apply to be included on the Supplementary Register, to be published during 2007.”