Theresa Reidy: How we can shake up our electoral system

REFERENDUMS can be very dull but we’ve just had a few lively ones which have shown that voters are interested in politics and can be persuaded to cast their ballots. We should learn lessons from the marriage and abortion votes and we can prepare the ground for the considerably less scintillating referendums ahead on technical aspects of the political system and the legalese of EU treaties.

Electoral registers

The turnout figure of 64pc at the abortion referendum was probably its most remarkable aspect. Most commentators expected the referendum to pass but nearly all predicted a lower turnout. The scale of the voter mobilisation was impressive and decisive in delivering the huge victory. But, truth be told, we don’t know what the actual turnout figure was.

There are genuine evidencebased concerns there could be hundreds of thousands of additional entries on the registers. These additional entries include people who are registered at multiple old addresses, people who have died and people who have emigrated in recent years.

Concerns about the electoral register have never been far from the surface in the past 20 years. In

2016, a survey for the Electoral Integrity Project found threequarters of voting specialists in Ireland believed the electoral register was inaccurate.

Ireland was ranked 137th in the world for voter registration practices, an appalling position for an old democracy. More than

100,000 voters were added to the supplementary register for the referendum, despite the fact the regular registration canvass was supposed to have taken place in November 2017.

How could any reasonable effort have missed 100,000-plus voters?

The Government should invest resources now to revise the register before the local and European elections. Over-registration means inaccurate turnout data, but it also makes electoral fraud easier. There is no evidence to suggest citizens are voting multiple times, but the integrity of Irish voters cannot be a substitute for rigorous election administration.

Emigrant voting

Irish emigrants living abroad are enthusiastic citizens. It is remarkable to see their commitment to the democratic process. Huge numbers returned to Ireland to cast their ballots at the abortion and marriage referendums. Social media was lit up with the #hometovote tag.

But official Ireland has a 1950s view of emigration. The electoral laws say citizens who are resident abroad on a permanent basis have no entitlement to vote at referendums or elections. There is a slight caveat to these rules: if a voter has been living abroad for less than 18 months and plans to return to the address at which they were registered, they can vote.

In practice, it is difficult to monitor emigrant voting but anyone who is outside the specified circumstances and casts a ballot is committing electoral fraud and could be prosecuted. Except, of course they won’t be prosecuted – the law will just be ignored and that brings elections into disrepute.

Emigrant voting rights are complicated and Ireland has a large diaspora but the Government should move to convert the 18-month provision to 10 years, and do it immediately. It is a temporary solution but, at the very least, it tells our citizens abroad they can retain their voting rights for a reasonable period, and it reduces the possibility many of our returning emigrant voters are engaging in electoral fraud. In the meantime, the Government could continue with its consultations on delivering a comprehensive emigrant vote policy and put these plans to a referendum, as needed.

Regulate online campaigning

Facebook and Google were concerned about online campaigning at the abortion referendum and took action to reduce its impact, in an act of unusual self-regulation.

Online campaign regulation is an impossibly complex area but pretending the internet does not exist is not really a sustainable position for managing Irish elections and referendums.

There are restrictions on political advertising for good reason. If we can stand over the need for restrictions on radio and television, it is absurd social media and other platforms are left entirely without regulation. There are few quick fixes and an electoral commission seems the best starting point.

Campaign posters

The abortion referendum was fiercely contested and groups used all of the means at their disposal. Some of the posters on the No side were repulsive and there may be a case for reviewing the content of posters.

However, calls for their prohibition or restriction ignore that 10pc of voters (200,000 people) in the RTÉ/Universities exit poll highlighted posters as an important source of information. Make them more environmentally friendly, regulate their content but don’t ban them. We should focus on making more information available to voters not restricting the sources they have, and find useful.

If we can stand over the need for restrictions on political advertising on radio and television, it is absurd social media and other platforms are left entirely without regulation