Student union hopes to register thousands of voters in coming days

The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) is hoping to sign up thousands of students voters ahead of the General Election as part of its new Rock the Register campaign.

Teams are handing out voter registration forms across DIT campuses at Aungier Street, Kevin Street and Bolton Street on Thursday, and gardaí have been enlisted to sign the forms which will then be sent off by the USI before the registration window closes next Tuesday.

"We're looking to target in the region of about 2,000-2,500 people. We are a bit ambitious I suppose but that's the kind of number we would typically get in a college this size with a drive this size," said USI president Kevin Donoghue.

The success of the USI-led student voter activation campaign prior to last year’s marriage equality referendum, which signed up an extra 20,000 voters, means this year’s drive isn’t nearly as big.

“We went into a class of about 200 people at NUIG there a couple of months ago and nobody was not registered to vote,” said Mr Donoghue.

“I’ve been doing this for years, I remember going into classes and there was no-one registered, now it’s difficult to find somebody who’s not registered to vote. It is very heartening,” he said, adding that the new wave of first year students is the primary target.

Members of the public must be signed up to the Register of Electors to be eligible to vote in General Election 2016.

The USI will not advocate for students to vote for any particularly party, according to Mr Donoghue, but young people are urged to make themselves aware of the issues most relevant to their demographic before casting their preferences on 26th February.

“We would encourage students to take a look at the particular issues, we wouldn’t advise anyone to vote for any particular political party, that’s not what we’re about. We wold advise people to go to smartvote.ie to match their candidates in their constituency versus their own views,” he said.