NEW FIGURES show a whopping 125,000 people have registered to vote in the lead up to the recent deadline for the abortion referendum.
The figures have been revealed by the National Youth Council of Ireland, who gathered returns from 14 city and county councils across the country.
If replicated in all 31 city and county councils, the results would indicate that up to 125,000 people have been added to the supplementary electoral register between February and the recent deadline of 8 May.
Those figures indicate a potential increase of over 90% on 2015’s voter registration figures.
In May 2015, 65,911 voters were added to the register before the deadline ahead of the marriage equality referendum.
Specific areas have seen the number of people registering to vote grow by more than 100% when compared to three years ago.
Those areas are Meath (123%), Kerry (112%), south Dublin (103%) and Westmeath (103%).
A significant increase has also been recorded in Galway (97%), Tipperary (92%) and Kilkenny (86%).
NYCI Deputy Director, James Doorley, has described the new figures as an “unprecedented surge of voter registration”.
He said: “We know a lot of work was done by a range of organisations in late 2017 and many thousands of eligible voters were added to the electoral register.
“It is really heartening that so many young people responded to the call by NYCI and others and took the opportunity to register at events organised by the USI, ISSU,SpunOut, individual student unions, youth organisations and community groups in recent weeks to ensure they had the right to vote in the upcoming referendum.”
In April the NYCI had expressed concerns that 22% of young people may not have been registered to vote, based on the results of a RedC poll which it commissioned in 2017.
Although Mr Dooley stressed that the results are preliminary and do not suggest that all of those new voters are young.
“It is important to note that not all those added to this latest supplement to the register are young voters,” he added.
“Some undoubtedly are not in the 18 to 29 age bracket, or are electors changing the location of their vote. However, the indications we received from a number of county councils suggest that a high percentage of those registered are new or young voters.”
On Friday, people will vote on whether or not the Eighth Amendment, which gives equal constitution status to the mother and the unborn, should remain in place or be repealed.
The National Youth Council of Ireland is a membership-led umbrella organisation that represents and supports the interests of voluntary youth organisations and uses its collective experience to act on issues that impact on young people.
See More: Abortion Referendum, Eighth Amendment, Ireland
