Voters have been reminded that today is the closing date for people to submit their names for inclusion on the electoral register for next year, if they have been left off the draft register for any reason.
Minister for the Environment Dick Roche pointed out that people who want to make corrections to the register have a deadline of today to do so.
The Minister said that those who had not already done so should check the central website www.checktheregister.ieand, if they are not registered, download the form and submit it to their local council.
"The campaign to compile the 2007/8 register - the one on which the general election will be held - has been the most extensive ever. In extending the deadlines involved, I gave individuals a further chance to get on the register and secure their vote. I urge people to take this opportunity today.
"While there are other means to get on the register before the election, people should not postpone acting on such an important issue," the Minister said.
According to information supplied by the local authorities to the Department of the Environment last month, about 170,000 of the 500,000 or so people whose names have been deleted from the electoral register should be entitled to get back on if they apply by today.
They were removed from the register because contact had not been established by the local authority but they had the last two weeks to get their names restored. Another 335,000 names were deleted because they had died, moved house or had been registered at more than one address.
The areas with the biggest number of deletions were Dublin city, Co Cork, South Dublin, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and Wicklow. Some of those areas also had a significant number of additions, with the biggest gap between deletions and additions coming in South Dublin.
Dublin city officials expected that up to 20 per cent of those deleted - about 10,000 names - could be included in the final register, while officials in South Dublin estimated that about a third of their deletions - 13,000 names - could be included on the final register. In Fingal it was expected that some of about 3,000 deletions will be included.
The preliminary figures also showed that major urban local authorities had a lower level of voter registration than the more suburban or rural council areas. It was 80 per cent in Dublin city, 87 per cent in Cork, 76 per cent in Galway, 81 per cent in Limerick and just 67 per cent in Waterford.
After today's deadline the local authorities will have until the end of this month to compile the final register for 2007. People left out will still have an opportunity of getting their names on the supplementary register until 15 days before the election, but the process is complicated and involves getting a form stamped by the Garda.
