Fewer Dublin residents are registering to vote for the referendum on the eighth amendment compared to 2015’s marriage equality referendum, Dublin City Council has confirmed.
Figure provided to The University Times by Dublin City Council confirm that, since the beginning of April, 1,700 voter registration applications have been received each week. However, these figures fall below the number of people registering to vote ahead of the marriage equality referendum.
In recent days, concerns have been expressed that up to 150,000 young people might not be registered to vote. Yesterday, Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) registered 1,000 students to vote ahead of the deadline on May 8th.
On campuses across the country, students’ unions have been registering students to vote in recent months. USI has been visiting campuses in recent days to campaign for repeal and to encourage students to vote.
Speaking to The University Times, the President of the USI, Michael Kerrigan, said he wasn’t surprised by the figures.
Students’ unions had “registered 18,000 before Christmas” and with many voter registration drives still ongoing, Kerrigan said he “expected much higher numbers by next week”.
Annie Hoey, a former USI President and a Canvassing Co-Ordinator for Together for Yes, told The University Times: “There’s still plenty of time for people to get on the register and plenty of time to encourage people to get on the register.”
Before any election, there is always a surge in people registering to vote. Ahead of the marriage equality referendum, almost 66,000 people joined the supplementary register, with 14,362 in Dublin alone.
