‘Vote where you did for last referendum’

May 1985

Voters going to the polls for the Local Elections on 20th June next won’t be told in the usual way beforehand where to cast their votes. Government cutbacks have led to the dropping of the traditional polling card system, usually sent to electors in the days leading up to an election. Instead, people are merely being told to go vote in the same place they did the last time the country went to the polls, which was in September 1983 for the Pro-Life Amendment Referendum.

Polling cards usually give details of venue and polling booth number. But they have been dropped this year by Wexford Co. Council because a Government subvention has been withdrawn as a cost-cutting exercise.

There has been an angry reaction by election hopefuls to the move. Cllr. Padge Reck said it would cause ‘massive confusion’, particulary amongst the elderly.

‘People expect to get polling cards. But now it will be up to canvassers to ahve a register with them when calling door to door, to inform poeople where they can vote,’ he said.