An elderly widow who got out of her sick bed to vote yesterday arrived at the polling station in Waterford only to be refused a ballot paper, reports Dick Grogan, South-East Correspondent.
Mrs Mary Power (72) said she was told she was not on the electoral register and nothing could be done. Upset and confused, she said at her home later: "I am on the register all my life. I'm 51 years living here in the same house, and I voted at every election."
She made the effort to get to the polling station yesterday because "it's kind of a special day. They were appealing so much for peace".
Her sister, Mrs Theresa Gamble, who had accompanied her to the polling station, was outraged. She got out the telephone book and rang every authority she could think of to demand that her sister be allowed to exercise her franchise.
Waterford Corporation, which produces the city register, could not explain why Mrs Power's name had been removed from it.
Nobody could help secure the vote for Mrs Power or explain why she had been deprived of it. She was not alone. In one polling booth in Ballybricken, six people had been turned away by lunchtime because their names had been omitted from the register.
The county registrar and returning officer, Mr Niall Rooney, expressed concern about the apparently high incidence of anomalies in the register: "It's what I call the `Black Hole syndrome'. People disappear," he said. Mr Rooney pointed out that there is an obligation on every citizen to check in advance that their name is on the register, if they intend to vote.
The Department of the Environment said its advice to check the register and the supplement which is published to correct anomalies is widely advertised in advance of every poll.