Votes on last Friday’s Seanad and Civil Court referenda were denied to a Mervue family, despite their names being on the draft register.
The three members of the family, who have been living in the same house for more than 50 years went to vote in Mervue School on Friday where they were told that they could not vote as their names were not listed on the register.
The family then raised the situation with Independent councillor Terry O’Flaherty, who checked the register of electors. The family were listed on the draft register but, for no particular reason, their names were removed from the final register which will be in force until February 2014.
Cllr O’Flaherty believes “this is not an isolated case” as such situations occur on a regular basis during elections. She is now calling for “more rigorous checks and scrutiny” before removing names from the register of electors, particularly now that the electoral boundaries have been redrawn for the local and European elections.
