asked the Minister for Local Government whether he is satisfied that there is sufficient time available to put into operation fully the new postal vote arrangement in so far as the local elections are concerned.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Postal Voting.
72.
Public notice was given in the national daily newspapers on Saturday, 11th May. Application forms were available in post offices and local authority offices from Friday, 10th May. The latest time for receipt of completed applications was 12 noon on Thursday, 23rd May, that is 12 days after the publication of the notice. I am satisfied that this notice was adequate. Postal voters will have about a fortnight in which to post their marked ballot papers to the returning officer.
There have been some reports about possible abuse of the postal voting system and I would like to assure the House that any attempted abuse will be dealt with with the full rigour of the law. There will be a complete review of postal voting arising from experience at these elections.
May I ask the Minister whether he has considered the possibility of fairly widescale abuse? Perhaps "abuse" is not the correct term to use because what I have in mind is quite legal. Is the Minister aware that what he has provided for is too wide? It is not a question of abuse in the legal sense but, rather, the fact that there is too wide an opening which will no doubt be availed of.
At this stage I would not be interested in the legal end of it. If it can be done legally we will have to review it before another election comes along. All I am interested in here is the rumour that certain persons have gone to post offices and have taken all the application forms for postal votes out of the post offices and brought them to certain institutions in an attempt to try to have applications made for postal votes in an entirely illegal and wrong way. If it can be proved that people have been doing this, I can assure the House that they will be prosecuted. If somebody or some persons attempt in this way to force their point of view and to break the law by filling in application forms for postal votes and filling in ballot papers, they will be prosecuted. This would completely defeat what we are attempting to do in allowing postal voting and I will try to prevent it in every way I can.
The Minister has said he is concerned about the illegal side of it. What I am talking about is a strictly legal practice that has been obtaining during the short time available. It is not being done by everybody, but there are some people quickly off the mark. Is it an offence to collect application forms from the post office? Is it an offence then to go around with the knowledge that those whom it is known would be entitled to secure such forms——
This is a very long question.
It is very important. Would it then be an offence for those persons to get the people entitled to postal votes to fill in and sign their forms? There is nothing illegal about it.
There is nothing illegal in somebody collecting 200 forms——
Perhaps 400 or 600.
——if a person gets them from a local sub-post office I think the person managing the post office would be making a mistake in giving them from the point of view of their being signed. The person applying for a postal vote must sign in the presence of a person who is certified to witness the signature. If this is not done the law is broken. It must be done in the presence of a person who is a certified person to witness the signature. Otherwise an illegal act has been committed and I will ensure that people responsible will be prosecuted.
Is the Minister aware that this is going on legally?
I am not so aware. It could be done legally only if somebody who is entitled to do so by law certified a number of people. There is nothing wrong in that. However if somebody other than the genuine applicant signs the application form and has it certified as being signed by a prospective postal voter, then that is illegal and punishable by law.
There may be a lot of people in hospital who would be entitled to postal votes and they might send somebody to the post office to collect the application forms.
The person who is going to the post office to collect 300 or 400 application forms is not doing it with good intentions.
I have been referring to a purely legal operation. It has been carried out with great diligence by certain people who are interested in securing a quota in a certain electoral area.