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Latest News - 1 July 2008
NEW ELECTORAL LAWS BRING WELCOME CHANGES FOR THOUSANDS ACROSS NORTHERN IRELAND
The Chief Electoral Officer for Northern Ireland, Douglas Bain has welcomed the wide ranging changes to electoral law that make registering and voting even easier. The new laws will be of particular benefit for anyone who has a disability and for young people.
The changes, which come into effect today, remove the dated common law on mental capacity to register and vote. From today anyone who has any form of disability which prevents them from going to vote in person will be entitled to a postal or proxy vote and a new booklet giving information on registration and voting for those with a disability has been published to coincide with the announcement:
Other changes now permit the use of War Disabled SmartPass and the Blind Persons SmartPass as means of identification when voting. Also changed today is the requirement that the other forms of identification used when voting are current and in date. However, the presiding officer must be satisfied that the elector is the person whose photograph appears on the document produced.
Douglas Bain said:
“I very much welcome these changes to electoral law which will make it easier for everyone, but particularly those with a disability, to exercise their democratic rights to register as electors and to vote.
The booklet, which gives information on the adjustments made to electoral law and practice to assist those with a disability, is another first for Northern Ireland in the field of electoral administration. I hope those with a disability and those who work with them will find it useful.”
Young people across Northern Ireland are also helped by the changes. The Chief Electoral Officer has been given new powers to obtain from secondary schools the names, addresses and dates of birth of all pupils over 16 years of age. This information will be used to enable the Electoral Office to partially complete registration forms before planned visits to at least 95% of secondary schools by 31 March 2009 to encourage eligible pupils to register.
Copies of the new booklet can be obtained by calling the Electoral Office Helpline on 0800 4320 712 or Text Phone 0800 3284 502.