Ballot breakdown

The how and where of voting

VOTERS HAVE 15 hours in which to cast their ballot tomorrow.

Polling stations open from 7am and close at 10pm. A total of 3,128,059 people are eligible to vote. In the first Lisbon referendum in June 2008, 1.6 million people voted, while 1.8 million turned out for the second vote in October 2009.

Islanders are not the only ones to vote early. Thousands of residents in nursing homes and hospitals across the State cast their referendum vote last week.

Up to 8,177 “special” voters were eligible to vote in institutions such as hospitals and nursing homes where they were registered as living. A deputy returning officer officiated at each home or hospital for a number of hours, accompanied by gardaí.

Figures for the actual turnout last week of special voters will not be known until the count day on June 1st as individual returning officers in each of the 43 constituencies make their own arrangements.

A further 13,227 people were eligible for postal voting. Acceptable identification for those voting tomorrow at polling stations include: a passport; driving licence; employee identity card containing a photograph; a student identity card issued by an educational institution and containing a photograph; a travel document containing a name and photograph; a bank or savings or credit union book containing the voter’s address in constituency.

Voters can also use a cheque book, cheque card, credit card, birth or marriage certificate, but must also have another document establishing their address.