Hundreds of thousands of inaccurate names on electoral register, commission warns

New data shows 11 local authorities have more registered voters than eligible residents due to outdated electoral rolls

The Commission has not put a figure on the number of names on the register that should not be there. Picture: PA

There are “hundreds of thousands” more names on the electoral register than should be, including dead people - but there is no way to find out the exact number.

New data shows 11 local authorities have more people registered to vote than eligible.

The research from the Electoral Commission has raised “deep concerns” about the accuracy of Ireland’s electoral registers, which are spread across all 31 local authorities.

In its report, the Commission has flagged there are “significant” numbers of duplicate or redundant entries within the 31 individual electoral registers.

According to the Commission, this is due to issues with people moving from one part of the country to another but not having their names removed from the electoral register.

It is also due to people dying, or emigrating to another country.

The 11 council areas with more people registered than are eligible to vote include: Cork County, Sligo, Donegal, Leitrim, Longford, Monaghan, Galway County, Westmeath, Carlow, Cavan, and Mayo.

It used a series of “accuracy indicators”, including PPSNs, eircodes and dates of birth, which can assist councils in removing duplicates. It found that the 11 councils with the highest levels of duplicates had “below average” accuracy indicators.

The Commission has not put a figure on the number of names on the register that should not be, saying there is no way of accurately measuring it.

However, chief executive of the Electoral Commission Art O’Leary, said the figure was likely in the “hundreds of thousands”.

Due to the uncertainty, the commission is calling on individual local authorities to audit their registers to ascertain their accuracy.

Tim Carey, the head of electoral operations at the Electoral Commission, said some local authorities perform well in removing duplicate entries, but others have not done as much work.

Mr Carey added there are not enough resources at local authority level to address issues with the electoral register.

He said some local authorities use death reporting services like RIP.ie or local radio death notices as a tool to help identify voters who have died.

Mr Carey said this is not solely used to remove people, but can then be cross-referenced with data from the General Register Office (GRO), which provides information on deaths.

“Local authorities are quite careful about removing someone, because what they don’t want to do is remove the wrong person and take away their franchise,” Mr Carey said.

He said the introduction of a countrywide register in the future will require “more resourcing” and until now, councils have “not responded adequately”.

The Department of Housing is to establish a single database for the electoral register, which is to be completed by 2026.