The electoral register?

_Whimsical_

Is it possible to find someone via this register if you just know their name and the area they live in?

Jimbob1977

I believe it is possible and your legal right, but I've never gone into a library, garda station or local authority office to try it out.

Every local council is responsible for its Register of Voters.

Apparently it contains the voter's name, address, polling station and category of voter. 

"Anyone can inspect this Register and it is available in all local authority offices, post offices, Garda stations and public libraries. You can use checktheregister.ieto check to see if you are on the Register".

I was looking to track someone down for a different reason (we fell out of touch). Let's call him John Smith.

I had just a name, but the Local Authority would not tell me the identity of all the John Smiths in Dublin X. It was for Data Protection purposes.

However, I believe I am fully allowed to check the Register of Voters and trawl through all the John Smiths and take down their addresses.

Ghekko

If you check the register online you may be lucky. However you'd need to be fairly specific with the area so suppose a person lived in Letterkenny you'd need to know the general area or you'd need to look through all areas that come up which could take time. If you go to a library for instance they may only have the register for their general area as opposed to the entire county. This happened me last year. So if you are going to look at hard copy of registers try to go to a library near the area. I'd say a library will be the most pleasant place as you'd at least get a bit of peace :-)

Jimbob1977

Ok Whimsical

I tried a 'guinea pig' test in the library.

I said that I wanted to inspect the Register of Voters and I didn't elaborate. Then I thought the librarian would simply hand a document over and let me scroll down through it at my leisure. Not a chance unfortunately

The lady wouldn't let the Register leave her sight for Data Protection reasons. Then she asked who I wanted to check.... and why.

I was scrambling for a reason, so I said I wanted to ensure my parents were still on the Register. The Register remained in her hands at all times. She was not allowed to hand it over.

It's divided as follows:

1. She asked for their polling station.

2. Once established, she asked for their electoral ward

3. Then she asked the street

4. Everyone is listed by surname.

Unless you get lucky, I'm afraid you won't be able to walk in and perform a wildcard search of a name and address.

Another option is that you could check the eircom phonebook online, but I've found the paper version had more entries (That the internet doesn't show).

In a nutshell, the Register of Voters is not quite 'public infornation' unless you know 95% of the facts already.

Hermy

I'd say that librarian is in the wrong - she seems to be using the rules as the apply to the online register.

Electoral registers are public record and should be available for unhindered public scrutiny for the sake of the integrity of elections.

I went to the council office on one occasion and the local post office on another.

While I had to do my search within view of the public counter I was left to search the register cover to cover at my leisure.