THE COUNTRY’S CITY and county councils will stop accepting applications to be included on the supplementary Register of Electors next Monday – meaning that if you can’t get to their office in person, today is your last chance to get your form posted off.

The easiest way to ensure you’re registered is to visit www.CheckTheRegister.ie and choose your local council from the drop-down list: from there you can enter your details and ensure that you’re registered at your current address.

People who are eligible to vote, but who are not currently on the register of electors, still have time to apply for entry to the supplementary register of electors, which will be published before voting day.

Applications for inclusion on the supplementary register must be received by your local council by Monday 14 May. Forms to be added to the register can be downloaded from the checktheregister.ie site, or from the links below:

• If you don’t appear on the register already, you’ll need form RFA2 to get onto the supplementary register.
• If you’re on the register, but your details are incorrect, you’ll need form RFA1.
• If you’re on the register at an old address, and you need to change to another one, you’ll need RFA3.

In some cases, you’ll need to get the signature of a Garda to witness your application, so read the form carefully and if the Garda witness is needed, don’t sign it until you have a Garda in front of you.

Once that’s done, get it in the post – addressed to the Franchise Section of your local county or city council (check their own website for a precise address). If you don’t get it in the post by today, and you want to make totally sure that you get your form in in time, you’ll need to deliver it in person on Monday.

Bear in mind that you probably won’t get a letter back confirming the receipt of your form, your name probably won’t appear on the electronic register before polling, and you probably won’t get a phone call ensuring you’re registered.

The first indication you’re likely to get is when your polling card arrives in the days before polling. (If you really want to check the status of your form, you can call the council, but bear in mind that some large councils will have a higher volume of forms to process.)

Bear in mind, too, that if you used form RFA3 previously to change your vote from one address to another, your vote should still be registered at the new address. Again, a quick look on CheckTheRegister.ie should verify this.

Unfortunately, it’s already too late to register for a postal vote.

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