Electoral (Amendment) Act 2001

PART 1 Preliminary and General

1 Short title, collective citation, construction and commencement.

1.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Electoral (Amendment) Act, 2001.

(2) The Electoral Acts, 1992 to 1999, and this Act may be cited together as the Electoral Acts, 1992 to 2001, and shall be read together as one.

(3) The European Parliament Elections Acts, 1992 to 1999, and this Act in so far as it relates to European Parliament elections may be cited together as the European Parliament Elections Acts, 1992 to 2001, and shall be read together as one.

(4) The Presidential Elections Acts, 1992 to 1997, and this Act in so far as it relates to presidential elections may be cited together as the Presidential Elections Acts, 1992 to 2001, and shall be read together as one.

(5) The Local Elections Acts, 1974 to 1999, and this Act in so far as it relates to local elections may be cited together as the Local Elections Acts, 1974 to 2001, and shall be read together as one.

(6) The Referendum Acts, 1992 to 1998, and this Act in so far as it relates to referendums may be cited together as the Referendum Acts, 1992 to 2001, and shall be read together as one.

(7) The Seanad Electoral (University Members) Acts, 1937 to 1973, and this Act in so far as it relates to Seanad elections may be cited together as the Seanad Electoral (University Members) Acts, 1937 to 2001, and shall be read together as one.

(8) The Seanad Electoral (Panel Members) Acts, 1947 to 1972, and this Act in so far as it relates to Seanad elections may be cited together as the Seanad Electoral (Panel Members) Acts, 1947 to 2001, and shall be read together as one.

(9) This Act shall come into operation on such day or days as the Minister may appoint by order or orders either generally or with reference to any particular purpose or provision and different days may be so appointed for different purposes or different provisions.

(10) An order under subsection (9) shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made.

2 Interpretation.

2.—(1) In this Act, except where the context otherwise requires—

“Act of 1997” means the Electoral Act, 1997;

“Principal Act” means the Electoral Act, 1992.

(2) In this Act—

(a) a reference to a Part or section is to a Part or section of this Act, unless it is indicated that reference to some other enactment is intended;

(b) a reference to a subsection, paragraph or subparagraph is to a subsection, paragraph or subparagraph of the provision in which the reference occurs, unless it is indicated that reference to some other provision is intended;

(c) a reference to any other enactment shall be construed as a reference to that enactment as amended, adapted or extended by or under any subsequent enactment including this Act.

PART 2 Amendment of Principal Act

3 Amendment of section 6 of Principal Act.

3.—Section 6 of the Principal Act is amended—

(a) by the insertion after the definition of “Dáil constituency” of the following definition:

“‘edited register’ has the meaning assigned to it by section 13A;”,

(b) by the insertion after the definition of “medical practitioner” of the following definitions:

“‘national edited register’ has the meaning assigned to it by section 13B;

‘national register’ has the meaning assigned to it by section 13B;”,

and

(c) by the insertion in the definition of “the register” after “special voters list” of “and the supplements to the postal voters list and to the special voters list”.

4 Amendment of section 13 of Principal Act.

4.—Section 13 of the Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following sections after section 13—

“Edited register of electors.	13A.—(1) Notwithstanding the provisions of this Part and the Second Schedule, a registration authority shall prepare and publish a version of the register of electors which shall be known and is in this Act referred to as the ‘edited register’ in accordance with Part 1A of the Second Schedule. (2) An edited register published by the registration authority under subsection (1) shall be deemed, for the purposes of section 20, to be part of the register of electors. (3) A person who uses information in the register prepared under section 13, including a draft register, the supplement to the register prepared under section 15 or in an electors list published under section 16, being information which is excluded from the edited register or edited electors list, for a purpose, other than electoral or other statutory purpose, shall be guilty of an offence. (4) A registration authority shall not be obliged to comply with subsection (1) until the day which is 3 years after the commencement of section 4 of the Electoral (Amendment) Act, 2001, but if it complies with that subsection before that day, subsection (3) and section 133 (as amended by section 32 of the said Act) shall apply accordingly.
National register of electors.	13B.—(1) The Minister may, by order, authorise, subject to the consent of the authority or body, a registration authority or other body established by or under an enactment to compile— (a) a register comprising the information contained in each of the register of electors prepared by the various registration authorities, including supplements to those registers prepared under section 15 (which shall be known and is in this Act referred to as the ‘national register of electors’); or (b) a register comprising such of the information contained in each of the said register of electors, including supplements to those registers as aforesaid, as is specified in the order (which shall be known and is in this Act referred to as the ‘national edited register of electors’). (2) Registration authorities may furnish a copy of the relevant registers free of charge to the authority or body authorised pursuant to subsection (1) for the purposes of its functions thereunder. (3) An order under this section may provide that the furnishing of registers by registration authorities to the authority or body authorised pursuant to subsection (1) shall be subject to conditions specified in the order, including a condition providing that the cost of preparing, maintaining and publishing the register referred to in subsection (1) shall be met by the registration authorities or otherwise. Subsection (3) of section 13A and section 133 (as amended) shall apply to the use of information in a national register of electors in the same manner as they apply to an individual register complied by a registration authority. (4) The Minister may, by order, amend or revoke an order under this section (including an order under this subsection). (5) Every order made under this section shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the order is passed by either such House within the next 21 days on which that House has sat after the order is laid before it, the order shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.
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Preparation and maintenance of register of electors.	13C.—(1) Notwithstanding the provisions of this Part, the Second Schedule, and Parts VII and VIII of the Electoral Act, 1997, the Minister may, by order, authorise a body, other than a registration authority, to prepare and maintain any of the following: (i) a register of electors including the postal voter lists and special voter lists, a supplement to the register including supplements to the postal voter lists and special voter lists, an edited register and an edited supplement for one or more registration areas; (ii) a register of the kind referred to in subsection (1)(a) of section 13B and a register of the kind referred to in subsection (1)(b) of that section. (2) A body authorised pursuant to subsection (1) shall be deemed to be a registration authority for the purpose of this Part, the Second Schedule and Parts VII and VIII of the Electoral Act, 1997. (3) An order under subsection (1) may provide that the cost of preparing and publishing the registers referred to in that subsection shall be met by the registration authorities to whose registration areas those registers relate. (4) The Minister may, by order, revoke or amend an order under this section (including an order under this subsection). (5) Where an order under this section (including an order under subsection (4)) is proposed to be made, a draft thereof shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas and the order shall not be made until a resolution approving of the draft has been passed by each such House.”.
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5 Amendment of section 14A of Principal Act.

5.—Section 14A of the Principal Act (inserted by the Electoral (Amendment) Act, 1996) is amended by the insertion of the following subsections after subsection (2)—

“(3) Part III (other than Rule 19(c)) of the Second Schedule shall apply to an application for entry in the postal voters list pursuant to section 14(a) as if—

(a) references in that Part to ‘special voters list’ were references to ‘postal voters list’,

(b) references to ‘section 17’ and ‘section 17(2)’ were references to ‘section 14(a)’,

(c) in Rule 19(d), ‘and, where appropriate, the certificate referred to in paragraph (c)’ were deleted, and

(d) in Rule 23, paragraphs (1)(c) and (2)(c) were deleted.

(4) In case an application for entry in the postal voters list pursuant to section 14(a), (c) or (d) is refused, Rules 16 and 17 of Part II of the Second Schedule shall apply to such a refusal as if the reference in Rule 16 to the ‘supplement to the register’ were a reference to ‘postal voters list under section 14(a), (c) or (d)’.”.

6 Amendment of section 15 of Principal Act.

6.—Section 15 of the Principal Act is amended by—

(a) the insertion in subsection (1) after “publish.” of “The registration authority is also empowered to prepare and publish a version of the supplement, which shall be known and is in this Act referred to as an ‘edited supplement’, by omitting from the supplement the names and addresses of registered electors or electors on whose behalf requests have been made that their details not be used for a purpose other than an electoral or other statutory purpose. Such a supplement shall be deemed to form part of the edited register prepared and published under section 13A.”;

(b) in subsection (1A)(a) (inserted by section 76 of the Act of 1997)—

(i) the insertion of “or” after “electors,” in subparagraph (ii);

(ii) the insertion of the following subparagraph after subparagraph (ii):

“(iii) is registered as an elector in a constituency or in a local electoral area and takes up ordinary residence in another constituency or in another local electoral area on a date following the coming into force of the register of electors then in force provided the person authorises in writing, in a form directed by the Minister, the registration authority in whose register of electors he is registered as an elector to delete his name from that register of electors. The authorisation shall include such information as is necessary to enable the authority for the area of original registration to identify the relevant entry in that register,”;

(iii) the substitution of the following paragraph for paragraph (c) of subsection (1A) (inserted by section 76 of the Act of 1997):

“(c) A person referred to in paragraph (a)(ii) shall be eligible for entry in the supplement to the register on or after the day on which that person reaches eighteen years of age, including such a day that falls within the period beginning on the last day on which applications for entry in the supplement can be received and ending on polling day in the case of a Dáil, Presidential, European, local or Údarás na Gaeltachta election, or a referendum.”;

(iv) the insertion of the following paragraph after paragraph (c):

“(d) The registration authority on receipt of an authorisation referred to in subparagraph (iii) of paragraph (a) and being satisfied that the person is no longer ordinarily resident in respect of the address for which he is registered as an elector shall—

(i) in the case the new address is in another registration area, delete his name from the register of electors for the authority's registration area and forward forthwith the relevant form to the registration authority for the address indicated on the form at which he is ordinarily resident,

(ii) in the case the new address is in another local electoral area within the registration area of the registration authority, delete the elector's name from the register of electors and enter his details in the supplement of the register prepared under this section.”;

(c) the insertion in subsection (2)(a) of “or (1A)” after “subsection (1)”; and

(d) the insertion in subsection (5) of “(including an election to Údarás na Gaeltachta)” after “election” where that word secondly occurs.

7 Amendment of section 15A of Principal Act.

7.—Section 15A of the Principal Act (inserted by section 76 of the Act of 1997) is amended by—

(a) in subsection (1), the substitution of “any of paragraphs (a) to (d)” for “paragraph (a) or (d)”;

(b) the insertion of the following paragraphs after paragraph (b) of subsection (2):

“(c) The provisions of section 12 shall apply to an application for entry in the supplement to the postal voters list under this section from an elector referred to in section 14(c) as if the reference in section 12 to qualifying date were a reference to the latest date for receipt of an application under subsection (4) and as if in subsection (3) of that section ‘, not later than the date specified for that purpose in the Second Schedule,’ were deleted.

(d) The provisions of Part III (other than Rules 19(c), 21 and 23 (3)) of the Second Schedule shall apply to an application for entry in the supplement to the postal voters list under this section from an elector referred to in section 14(a) or 14(b) as if—

(i) references in that Part to ‘special voters list’ were references to ‘supplement to the postal voters list’;

(ii) the reference in that Part to ‘section 17’ were a reference to this section and references in that Part to ‘section 17(2)’ were references to ‘section 14(a) or 14(b)’;

(iii) in Rule 19(d), ‘and, where appropriate, the certificate referred to in paragraph (c)’ were deleted and ‘to the registration authority’ were substituted for ‘so as to be received by the registration authority not later than the date specified in Rule 1’;

(iv) in Rule 22, ‘at such times and places as are specified in a notice published pursuant to Rule 21,’ were deleted;

(v) in Rule 23, subparagraph (c) of paragraphs (1) and (2) were deleted.”;

(c) the substitution of the following subsection for subsection (4):

“(4) An application by an elector to have his name entered in the supplement to the postal voters list received by the registration authority on or after the third day after the dissolution of the Dáil at a general election or on or after the third day after the date of the making of the order appointing polling day at a Dáil bye-election, or a Presidential, European or local election, or an election to Údarás na Gaeltachta or a referendum shall not have effect in relation to that election or referendum.”;

and

(d) in subsection (5), the insertion of “or an election to Údarás na Gaeltachta” after “local election”.

8 Amendment of section 15B of Principal Act.

8.—Section 15B of the Principal Act (inserted by section 76 of the Act of 1997) is amended by—

(a) the substitution of the following subsection for subsection (4):

“(4) An application by an elector to have his name entered in the supplement to the special voters list received by the registration authority on or after the third day after the date of the dissolution of the Dáil at a general election or on or after the third day after the date of the order appointing polling day at a Dáil bye-election or a Presidential, European or local election or an election to Údarás na Gaeltachta or a referendum shall not have effect in relation to that election or referendum.”;

and

(b) in subsection (5), the insertion of “or an election to Údarás na Gaeltachta” after “local election”.

9 Sections 15A and 15B of Principal Act: supplemental provision.

9.—The Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 15B (inserted by section 76 of the Act of 1997):

“Supplements to the postal and special voters lists where more than one poll is held on same day.

15C.—Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (4) of section 15A or subsection (4) of section 15B, where an application by an elector to have his name entered in the supplement to the postal voters list or the supplement to the special voters list is received after the relevant date referred to in subsection (4) of section 15A or subsection (4) of section 15B in relation to an election or a referendum but before the relevant date referred to in either of the said subsections in relation to another election or referendum, the poll at which is to be held on the same day, the relevant date for the second or subsequent election or referendum shall apply to an application received under subsection (4) of section 15A or subsection (4) of section 15B in connection with the elections or referendums.”.

10 Amendment of section 16 of Principal Act.

10.—The Principal Act is amended by the substitution of the following section for section 16: