Trinity Students left off Voter Register due to CC mess up

mullenja

Reports coming out of Trinity students who signed onto the register in college got to the polls today to find out they weren't registered. Any idea how wide spread this is?

Before people go SU bashing it appears this is a County Council problem as all forms were delivered in one batch some got registered, some didn't.

mikemac

And why did the SU leave it so late?
That drive has been ongoing for a few months.
They could have delivered the forms in a batch every few weeks

Not collecting them all and dropping them in at the last minute.

It's not like students don't know about managing workloads and meeting deadlines, the council have the same issues

eVeNtInE

This post has been deleted.

WhosUpDocs

It was left on the long finger by the SU and regulations say forms must be delivered in individual envelopes apparently. Just more of the cock ups we've come to expect really isn't it?

blubloblu

This was posted in another thread when someone saw they weren't on checktheregister.ie

TCDSU wrote: »

Hey Guys,

Saw this post and thought I should reply to combat any hysteria.

I personally oversaw the entire voter registration and can guarantee you that every possible precaution was taken to make sure that everyone who registered with us, had their voter form returned to their County/City Council correctly. (About 2,500 forms).

As instructed by the Dept. of Local Gov each of our forms was mailed in separate envelopes,to the correct Council with Gardai stamps(when required) and a day ahead of the deadline both in November and in Feb.


Both myself and USI contacted a number of Councils and the Dept. of Local Government to ensure there was no problems with out voter drive. Every single one of them assured us that they was no problem expect for Fingal County Council.

Fingal county council, refused to accept the forms, because they were part of a voter registration drive ( read laziness). They were subsequently brought to court by USI, and they settled out of court agreeing to accept all the forms.

After we found in Feb 1st(the date it was meant to be updated by) that the check the register website had not been updated, we again contacted county councils and Dept. of Local government. The reply was that they have been flooded from applications from not only students but also new voters in the run up to the elections and that the register had not been updated as they were still trawling through all the applications. We have been assured that EVERY form that is in their current backlog will be on the register come voting day.

Personally after running this campaign I was furious with how little regard the Government have for giving people their right to vote.

Why is it that for the vast majority of the year you need a Garda stamp on your Voter Registration form but for the 25 days from the 1st of November you don't?

Why in this day and age, does the Voter Registration process have to be so labour intensive, when it could be very easily replaced with an online system, using PPS numbers?

Why would does a County Council have to be taken to court to be made accept perfectly legitimate voter registration forms?




Nikolai

the flananator

blubloblu wrote: »

This was posted in another thread when someone saw they weren't on checktheregister.ie

Nikoli is so fucking sexy when he goes off on one.

Tragedy

I think it's a bit early to be assigning blame to anyone. See what happens next week!

Jonathan

SU Newsletter wrote:

Voter Registration Investigation

Following our investigation into voters who registered during our 2 voter registration drives being left off the register of electors we obtained the following complaints.

Dublin City Council - 22
South Dublin County Council- 2
Cork County Council - 1
Galway County Council -1
Kilkenny County Council -1
Dun Laoighaire Rathdown Council - 2
Carlow- 2
Fingal - 2
Meath - 2
Waterford -1
Offaly - 1

We have contacted Dublin City Council in a bid to try and understand why they had left so many people off the register and were told they could not explain what happened to the missing forms, and that if forms are mailed in they are no longer the responsibility of the Council. This answer is obviously not good enough and we are still pursuing reform in the registration system so this people are never again left off the register.

Does this mean that forms were submitted using standard post, or were they submitted via registered post?

Ahoyhoy

I'd say they would have said it if it was by registered post to cover themselves. An earlier e-mail said that one council was making them submit them all in individual envelopes - registered post cost for 1,000+ forms would be how much?

Either way I reckon next time they do it, they'll use registered post.

PurpleFistMixer

Ahoyhoy wrote: »

registered post cost for 1,000+ forms would be how much?

A cost they should be willing to pay if they're going to offer the service, tbh.

Mark200

PurpleFistMixer wrote: »

A cost they should be willing to pay if they're going to offer the service, tbh.

Definitely not... how often do things go missing in standard post? Not very often.

Ahoyhoy

Mark200 wrote: »

Definitely not... how often do things go missing in standard post? Not very often.

True - I heard a story of a tourist posting a thank you card to a second hand bookshop in Cork - the address was something like this and it arrived. If the story is true of course...

A second hand bookshop,
A village about thirty minutes from Cork City,
It's on a river,
Cork,
Ireland