Funferal

Move to revamp electoral register in Ireland.

The Irish Labour Party has launched a new bill – it actually got its first reading today – to totally revamp the manner in which the electoral register is compiled and maintained.Apart from creating an Election Registration Commissioner,

the Bill provides for access by registration authorities to information held by third parties relating to persons resident within their registration areas and it makes provision for the use of personal public service numbers in connection with the registration of electors and with establishing the identity of persons applying for ballot papers at elections.

This area is somewhere I’ve been encouraging change for some time (as opposed to forays into electronic voting), so I’m glad to see formal moves. It remains to be seen whether it will gain sufficient support to be passed.