Check the Register before the General Election
Leo Varadkar has called the next General Election. It will be held on Saturday the 8th of February 2020. This happens to be exactly one week before the Register of Electors for 2020-2021 comes into force. What does that mean?
Anybody who registered to vote since the 15th of February 2019 (12 months ago!) will not be able to vote in this election unless they add themselves to the supplemental register.
To repeat: people who registered to vote in the last 12 months are not eligible to vote in this election unless they add themselves to the supplemental register.
Here's a guide on exactly how to do that.
- Go to www.checktheregister.ie to check if you are on the current register.
- If you are not on the register:
- Use this link to download the RFA2 form if you registered to vote for the first time in the last 12 months.
- Use this link to download the RFA3 form if you changed your address on the Register of Electors in the last 12 months.
- Use this link to download the RFA5 form if you have acquired Irish citizenship in the last 12 months
- Print and fill out the form.
- Bring the form to your local Garda station with your passport before Wednesday the 22nd of January and ask a Garda to sign the document.
- Send the form to your local city or county council before close of business on Wednesday the 22nd of January.
Seán Fleming, the chair of the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee responsible for ensuring government transparency and accountability, has said:
“If we go into a general election without this resolved, people won’t have a vote — that’s most unfair.”
Those who registered to vote in the last 12 months are either young people intending to vote for the first time or people who moved constituency and want a new polling station. Most of those young people, dissatisfied with the state of action on housing and climate, would have registered so they can vote for other parties, not Fine Gael.
So, this choice of election date seems convenient. Is it a coincidence? Decide for yourself, but if you feel like Varadkar called this date to add an extra hurdle to participation in our electoral process, get to the polling station on February the 8th and make your voice heard.
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