Voter registration drive sees close to over 91,000 new applications

Kenneth Fox

An Coimisiún Toghcháin, Ireland’s independent electoral commission, welcomed a wave of 91,157 applications from people joining the electoral register and updating their details to vote in the October 24th Presidential Election.

60,733 new voter applications have been received through the CheckTheRegister.ie and Voter.ie websites since the start of An Coimisiún Toghcháin’s voter registration drive at Electric Picnic on August 28th, with a further 30,424 applications received to update people’s existing registrations on the sites in the same period.

The deadline for people to register to vote in the Presidential Election 2025 was midnight on October 7th. The final two days, ahead of the deadline, saw 26,335 applications to register or update details.

Among its functions, An Coimisiún Toghcháin, Ireland’s independent electoral commission, is tasked with building awareness of Ireland’s elections and increasing the number of people registering and voting through education and information campaigns.

Since August, An Coimisiún has met thousands of people at Electric Picnic, the National Ploughing Championships, at public meetings, in schools, on webinars and on third-level education campuses across the country as part of its voter registration drive.

These events, combined with the work of local authority franchise teams, have provided opportunities to answer questions directly, raise awareness about deadlines, and support first-time and younger voters.

Mr Art O’Leary, chief executive of the An Coimisiún Toghcháin, said: “Welcome to all of these new voters, and our thanks for taking the time to register to vote or update registration details. Having updated information, including people’s PPS numbers and Eircodes, helps the overall accuracy of Ireland’s electoral registers.

“For those who are going to vote for the first time on Friday, October 24th, your voice will now help to shape Ireland’s future and will be what I hope is the beginning of a lifetime of making a difference.

“From Electric Picnic to the Ploughing to college campuses, school halls, webinars and public meetings, for the last 6 weeks we have been travelling around the country speaking with thousands of people about getting registered and using your vote.

“Huge credit is also due to the franchise staff across Ireland’s city and county councils who are working flat out to update the register with all these new people ahead of polling.”