Clarification required over wrong election material being posted to households – Burke

An error between An Post and local authorities has seen tens of thousands of voters in Galway East, Cork North Central and Cork North-West getting the wrong election material, a Fine Gael Minister and General Election candidate has said.

Fine Gael General Election candidate for Cork North Central, Minister Colm Burke said that an explanation must be provided for how the Litir um Thoghcháin – the letter that every election candidate is entitled by law to send to voters – was delivered to scores of voters in the wrong constituency.

Minister Burke said: “The Litir um Thoghcháin is an important part of the electoral process. An Post are required to deliver these letters, and local authorities are responsible for providing the names and addresses of every voter by constituency.

“It now appears that the election letter from candidates in Cork East have been sent to almost 15,000 voters in my own constituency of Cork North-Central and Cork North-West. This is because the information being used was based on the constituencies from the last General Election. The same has happened in Galway East I understand, where voters have received letters from Roscommon-Galway candidates, and it may have happened elsewhere as well.

“Constituency boundaries have changed since the last election and this would seem to have been a contributing factor to these errors occurring, however the Electoral Commission reported on new boundaries in August 2023.

“Clarification on how this error occurred must be provided to avoid mass confusion to voters about who their candidates are. This error may make a case for the Electoral Commission to take over this role nationally, to ensure electoral registers are updated and centrally stored.”