Online political ads crackdown and more postal voting planned in new electoral reform bill

The new electoral reform bill will allow for greater access to postal voting, as well as revamp registration. File Picture.

A new bill would allow for polling to be held over two days if the State holds an election during Covid-19.

The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien, and the Minister of State with Responsibility for Heritage and Electoral Reform, Malcolm Noonan, published the General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill today.

The bill also proposes to expand the Dáil to between 166 and 172 members - up from 160, due to population growth.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, provisions have been included to hold a poll over two days - which would assist with social distancing at polling stations. It also gives flexibility to returning officers to provide a postal vote to those on the special voters list if nursing homes and hospitals are inaccessible at the time of the election.

The new bill will also establish the long-awaited electoral commission, promised since 2007, and new restrictions for online advertising.

The electoral commission will be independent of Government and report directly to the Oireachtas.

It will take on several existing statutory electoral functions, including responsibility for the registration of political parties, and will have responsibility for the regulation of online political advertising during elections and oversight of the electoral register.

The commission’s membership will be comprised of a mix of public officials with experience in the field and experts selected via a public competitive process.

The establishment of the commission is hoped to bring much-needed, publicly-funded national voter education to increase voter turnout and youth engagement in elections. During the 2016 general election, Ireland was ranked 137th in the world for voter registration processes.

The modernisation of the electoral register will see the simplification the registration process, including an online option, a rolling (continuously updated) register, a move to a single, national electoral register, and the introduction of provisional registration for 16- and 17-year-olds which would become active at the age of 18.

The commission will also make a provision to review electoral constituencies.

Included in the bill is a potential crackdown on paid-for political ads. Online ads will be required to be clearly labelled. The need for such a move was flagged in 2018 when overseas groups and individuals were able to purchase political advertising targeting Irish voters during the referendum on the Eighth Amendment. 

It has been noted by a number of elected officials that the rise of misinformation in elections in other countries is cause for concern and tighter regulations would be needed in Ireland for any upcoming ballots.

The advertisements will display specified information with a transparency notice, linked to the advertisement, including information on who paid for the advertising, details of any micro-targeting which was applied and the total cost of the advertising.

The bill also states: "An online platform shall monitor all dealings with a buyer... by scrutinising transactions and the source of funds for those transactions, to determine whether or not the transactions are consistent with - any knowledge that the responsible person may have that the buyer may be involved in, or the service sought by the buyer is for the purpose of, the... promotion of an online political advertisement on behalf of a person residing outside the island of Ireland."