95,424 ELIGIBLE TO VOTE IN REFERENDUM IN WICKLOW

An unprecedented amount of people applied to Wicklow County Council to be included on the Register of Electors in advance of the Referendum to be held on Friday, giving the highest ever electorate.

In Friday’s referendum we are being asked to vote on a proposal to change the Constitution by removing Article 40.3.3 otherwise known as the Eighth Amendment which makes it unlawful in Ireland for a pregnancy to be terminated other than in circumstances where there is a real and substantial risk to the life of the mother, including a risk of suicide.

A total of 95,424 people on the electoral register in County Wicklow are entitled to vote in the referendum, including 3,149 people who registered recently and whose names are on the supplementary register.

Some 5,000 applications were received for the Supplementary Register being compiled by Wicklow County Council. All of these had to be individually checked, validated and either added to the Supplement, forwarded to other local authorities or rejected as being on the Live Register.

The total valid Supplement was 3,149 – 3,081 of these are the Referendum Supplementary Electorate. There is 92,343 on the full register which puts the total electorate for Wicklow at 95,424, the highest ever.

In fact, the supplement figure of 3,149 is the equivalent of an extra 5.25 ballot boxes. The Supplement for the General Election in 2016 was 557 and for the Marriage Equality Referendum in 2015 was 1,200.

A total of 1,851 applications were rejected on the grounds of being already registered to vote, moving within the same local electoral area, not on the Register in Wicklow and relocating to other local authorities.

Approximately 2,500 email queries/applications were received by the Council regarding inclusion on the Register while hundreds of phone queries were dealt with.

All forms have been handled a minimum of three times by Council staff while the valid Supplement has been checked form by form, entry by entry.

Wicklow County Council welcomes the engagement of the public in the Voter Registration process and was happy to assist electors with their queries.

‘We felt it was better to deal with the queries and resolve any issues as best we could in advance of the closing date for applications’, a Council spokesperson said. ‘This campaign has been the most advertised, both nationally and locally, with Wicklow County Council starting its advertising campaign the week the Referendum was called. We’ve been active on print media, social media and updated our website regularly.’

The exact wording of the current article which was voted into the Constitution by a 66.90 per cent to 33.10 per cent national majority after a bitterly-contested referendum in 1983 is: ‘The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable by its laws, to defend and vindicate that right’.

Additional amendments state that this does not limit the freedom to travel between Ireland and another country and doesn’t restrict the freedom to obtain or make available information relating to services available in another State.

There was a 53.6 per cent electoral turn-out in County Wicklow for the 1983 referendum, slightly below than the national average of 53.67 per cent, with 18,121 votes in favour of the Eighth Amendment and 13,548 votes against, representing a percentage of 57.2 per cent to 42.8 per cent in favour.

The new referendum proposal is to delete that Eighth Amendment and to insert the following in its place: ’Provision may be made by law for the regulation of termination of pregnancy’ and if this is carried, it will allow the Government to legislate for abortion.

Abortion has been illegal and subject to criminal penalty in Ireland from 1861 but since it was legalised in Britain in 1967, many thousands of Irish women have travelled to England to avail of abortion services there, including an estimated 441 County Wicklow women who travelled to the UK for terminations from 2012 to 2016.

If a majority of people vote Yes in Friday’s referendum, it will allow the Oireachtas to pass laws regulating the termination of pregnancy and any new laws need not limit the availability of abortion to circumstances where there is a risk to life of the mother.

If there is a majority ‘No’ vote, the Eighth Amendment will remain in place and laws may be passed to provide for abortion only where there is a real and substantial risk to the life of the pregnant woman.

The present legal position in Ireland in relation to abortion stems from the Constitution which outlines the basic law of the State along with court decisions interpreting constitutional guidelines and laws passed by the Oireachtas.

In 1992, the Eighth Amendment was interpreted by the Supreme Court in a case known as the ‘X Case’, to mean that termination of pregnancy is permitted only when there is a real and substantial risk to the life of the mother, including a risk of suicide.

Polling stations will open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday.