First-time voters, or those who find they have slipped off the electoral register, can sign up to vote without visiting a Garda station, but only if they live in Dublin.
Voter.ie is a new service from four Dublin local authorities which allows Dubliners to add their names to the Register of Electors, change their address on the register, and amend other details, including citizenship or name.
The service will only be available to those who have signed up to the Department of Social Protection’s digital identity service mygovid.ie. People who have a public services card will already have access to the site.
To use voter.ie they must verify their identity through mygovid.ie. More than 500 people have made applications to be entered on the register through voter.ie, since it went live one week ago.
The Minister of State for Local Government and Electoral Reform, John Paul Phelan said the project led by Dublin City Council, was very welcome.
“This will provide an additional service to those who wish to avail of this online service, and will complement the current manual process, which will continue to be available for those who wish to use it,” he said.
“I see this as an important step towards the Government’s plan to improve and modernise the electoral registration process.”
Voters outside Dublin who want to be added to the register must continue to use the paper process and have their form stamped in a Garda station before returning it to their local authority. However, Mr Phelan last December opened a public consultation process on the potential to allow online registration to be introduced across the State.
The review is examining the possibility of using PPS numbers to identify voters and sharing data between public bodies to automatically update people’s addresses on the electoral register.
The project is expected to take two or three years to complete and is to examine the full range of policy, legislation and technology that might be used to modernise the process.
