Minister for Housing; Local Government and Heritage, James Browne, has said he has no plans to amends the electoral law to require voters to mandatorily present photographic ID at polling stations.
The minister was responding to a parliamentary question from Independent Offaly TD Carol Nolan.
The Independent TD asked the minister if he is aware that 24 of the 27 Member States of the European Union require photographic ID to be produced by all voters at polling stations; his views on whether it is acceptable for Ireland to be one of three outliers who do not have such a requirement; and his plans to amend the law to bring Ireland in line with virtually all other western democracies in this regard.
In his response to the Independent TD, the minister noted that current electoral law provides that a presiding officer may, at his or her own discretion,” “require any person attending to vote to produce one of the specified documents as evidence of identity.”
According to the minister, the purpose of this requirement regarding evidence of identity is “to strengthen the safeguards against the offence of personation, particularly against the possibility that the offence may be attempted on a widespread and organised basis.”
He confirmed that there is no intention for the provision to be “so operated as to prevent qualified electors voting,” although it remains the case that if a person fails to produce a valid identifying document or if the presiding officer is not satisfied that the person concerned is the person to whom the document produced relates, “the person shall not be permitted to vote.”
The Manual for Presiding Officers, prepared by the ministers Department for each electoral event, currently advises presiding officers to seek evidence of identity:
The minister also stated that in exercising his or her discretion in regard to seeking evidence of identity from a random selection of persons attending to vote, the presiding officer, should request “a minimum of 25% of the electors attending his or her station to produce one of the specified ID documents.”
“Presiding officers are advised that the electors should be selected at random throughout the day but particular attention should be paid at rush hours when it is most likely that personation would be attempted.”
Responding to the reply, Deputy Nolan said,
“I certainly believe this is an issue that we need to seriously reexamine as part of the states efforts to maintain the integrity of the electoral process going forward. Fortunately to date we have not experienced a major surge in voter impersonation, but such a turn of events cannot be ruled out either, particularly in light of the fact that our population has undergone a period of dramatic growth from inward migration and from the tens of thousands of people arriving here who entered the state with no valid identifying documents.
Any society trying to manage such numbers and such a widespread indifference to ID requirements would be prudent to take additional steps aimed at safeguard its electoral process. Ireland has generally been a very high trust society. Tragically that is becoming less so as time goes on. We cannot adopt an ostrich policy of simply ignoring that unpleasant reality and its implications right across the board”