County's electoral register shake up

More than 9,000 modifications were made to the electoral register in Meath over the past year, alongside more than 6,200 deletions and over 5,200 additions, councillors were told at May’s full council meeting amid concerns over the accuracy of voter records ahead of a major national overhaul of the system.

The figures emerged during a discussion on the maintenance of the register, with Independent Cllr Nick Killian raising concerns about how the register is being updated and the level of engagement with elected members.

“How did we go about updating the register? Because there’s nobody in touch with us as councillors in relation to it, and as we all know, it’s an important document when it comes to election time,” he said.

Cllr Killian also pointed to issues he had previously identified, including duplicate entries and the names of people who had died still appearing on the register.

“I know from the last time there were quite a number of people still on it, including duplications and people who unfortunately had passed away,” he said.

In response, a Meath County Council official outlined the scale of updates carried out between January and December 2025, confirming there had been over 5,200 additions to the register in Meath, approximately 6,200 deletions and more than 9,000 modifications.

The official said deletions can occur for a number of reasons including death, change of address or duplication where individuals appear more than once on different registers. They stressed that removal is treated as a last resort and is followed up with contact where possible.

Officials said engagement with the public includes email correspondence, letters, phone contact and targeted campaigns encouraging people to check their registration details.

A major change is also underway at national level, with the existing 31 separate electoral registers due to be replaced by a single national voter register in September.

The Meath County Council official said the new system, referred to as “Borderline.ie”, would improve accuracy and reduce duplication issues, particularly where people are registered in more than one area, such as students or those with multiple addresses.

“When this rollout is complete, there will be one national voter register. Currently there are 31 different registers, and this change will significantly improve accuracy and consistency,” the official said.

They also confirmed that data cleansing had been carried out during the migration process, including updates to addresses, Irish language versions of names and the removal of duplicated entries.

“There were duplications where someone may have been a student living at home or registered in more than one area. That has now been addressed as part of the cleansing process,” the official added.

Councillors were told a presentation on the new system is expected to be brought before elected members in the coming months, outlining how the national register will operate and how councillors will be able to access and use it, including for canvassing purposes.

“The aim is to make the system more user-friendly for elected members as well as improving accuracy for the public register,” the official said.