Strange issue with register of electors

magicbastarder

just to clarify; the only reason my wife found out she was on the register in the wrong place was that she got a jury summons to that address; having received one at the correct address 18 months ago, and now enjoying a 5 year bye from jury duty.

the funny thing is the postman, or someone in an post, corrected the address on the jury summons before it was delivered, to ensure it was actually delivered (or as a signal to the addressee).

i'm kinda bemused by Larbre34's posts suggesting the onus is on her to address this - which she fully plans on doing anyway - because, until the summons arrived, she had no way of checking the register at the old address unless she'd guessed the incorrect address that was used. without the summons, the only way she'd have learned would have been when the polling card was delivered (assuming her parents would then also have mentioned it to her)

Larbre34

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122100761#Comment_122100761

I did explain it, its a system error. A field from a massive and ungainly database system was captured by the programme when it should have been inactive, or archived or whatever.

The bottom line is; if everyone who wants to vote at their current address, checks the register a couple of months before the Poll, and sees that they are, or are not registered at that address, it gives them time to fix it!

Once the local authority has been informed to add you to your current address, they will use their manual checks to purge the out of date record.

For the 10th time, if everyone takes proper responsibility for their own registration, they will have no obstacle to voting on polling day!

magicbastarder

The bottom line is; if everyone who wants to vote at their current address, checks the register a couple of months before the Poll, and sees that they are, or are not registered at that address, it gives them time to fix it!

i'm struggling as to how to explain this? this is not about not being registered at your correct address, it's about being registered at an incorrect one. and they're not mutually exclusive.

you're lecturing a bunch of people about an issue we're not talking about.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122102943#Comment_122102943

How often am I supposed to check each of the eleven addresses I've lived at in case I've been added back incorrectly?

Sam Russell

As you are only allowed to vote once no matter how many times you appear on the register, you only need to be registered at your current address. All other entries are not to be used.

So check you are registered at your current address and all will be good.

The electoral register definitely needs to be just outright replaced with a single new system that's properly secure and well managed.

The problem is it's just local authority databases that have had very limited budgets to maintain them.

The history of the PPSN is basically that it was a tax / social welfare ID number. It was never intended originally as an ID number for anything else, so when people were jointly assessed in the 1970s/80s they had effectively on account number with a W added it there was a wife. It was sexist, but it was the 1970 - basically everything was sexist back then and most of the people who designed those systems would now probably be a hundred years old.

Eircode seems to be a solid system and should be used more by state bodies. It's just slow and costly to update databases and it's challenging to figure out which eircode goes with which address in some cases if there was no unique address to start with. You'd have to wait until someone provides an update themselves in some cases.

You can obviously translate 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield to an Eircode, but you can't necessarily figure out that Mrs Murphy, Ballyclabbert, Co Dublin is directly linked to a particular eircode, without her actually confirming that. The data doesn't necessarily exist to do the translation. Some of those databases will take years to be 100% eircode based.

It's fairly clear that they aren't really identifying particular issues with voter fraud here. It is monitored and it does come up as a question in OCSE monitoring but more of an observation than a heavy concern.

Victor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122091976#Comment_122091976

Ard na Glaise is a newly-built estate.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122103400#Comment_122103400

All will be good in terms of you being able to vote, but all is definitely not good in terms of integrity of the register, if people are being added back on to old addresses.

Larbre34

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122103400#Comment_122103400

Exactly.

It doesn't matter a feck how many other addresses you appear at. Chances are, unless someone you know remains in that house, you wil never hear about it.

Sam Russell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122103465#Comment_122103465

The solution to the Eircode problem is to eliminate all non-unique addresses. This should have been done as part of the Eircode project.

First, give every road a unique name for each townland. This could be by reference to those living there or by providing them with a multiple choice of names.

Then give every house a number on that road either by reference the distance from the start of it, or some such method. All urban non-unique addresses should be by just providing them with a number for the road they are on.

Revenue collect the Property Tax so they could do the work.

GNWoodd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122103802#Comment_122103802

You are either being a troll or you genuinely don’t understand how the system works. Of course it matters how many addresses you are registered at .
If I am registered at five different addresses and the five of them are aligned to five different polling stations , I get five polling cards. I choose busy times at which to attend ( to avoid the possibility of being asked for proof of address ) and I can vote five times at the same plebiscite.
The system simply does not have the capacity to effectively resurrect old addresses / voters etc .

magicbastarder

I choose busy times at which to attend ( to avoid the possibility of being asked for proof of address )

i've never been asked for actual proof of address - just that my name matches the one on the polling card. if you produce a driver's licence (which has an address); 'yeah, i have moved house since that was issued'. they're not going to argue with that.

Sam Russell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122104544#Comment_122104544

I remember voting and another voter was checked and deemed to not be allowed to vote because he was no longer living at that address. He was a well known person, as was the well reported fact he no longer living at that address.

expectationlost

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122091987#Comment_122091987

when was this?

Eircode already does that - the issue is more that people just need to provide their Eircode to the electoral register.

The properties are all assigned an Eircode.

One thing that would speed it up, is assigning an Eircode when planning applications are finalised and approved. It's taking too long for some new estates to get codes, which happens as An Post notices the addresses.

miamee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122087401#Comment_122087401

This is funny, this has happened to my OH this year. We moved to the area 2 years ago, we never got around to registering to the new address but a polling card arrived for him for the most recent referendum.

OH had some dealings with a local councillor for a safety issue behind our property which he helped to resolve so we've assumed he's the one who added him to the register. I was shocked at the time but OH reckons that's just the way things are done here 🤷