Public Trust in Ireland’s Elections High Despite Global Challenges

19 May 2025 – An Coimisiún Toghcháin, Ireland’s independent electoral commission and the National Election and Democracy Study (NEDS) Management Board have today published results of the General Election 2024, National Election and Democracy Study. The centre-piece of An Coimisiún’s Research Programme, the NEDS study is carried out after each electoral event to build up a long term data-set on Ireland’s democracy.

Encouragingly, at this challenging time for democracies globally, the study indicates high levels of trust in the integrity of Ireland’s elections:

• 94% of respondents agree that elections are conducted in accordance with the law.

• 88% agree that elections are well managed and that election officials are fair.

• 96% of voters agreed that they are confident that their ballot papers were secret once they put then in the ballot box.

Notably in terms of An Coimisiún’s education remit, the study also suggests that Irish voters are knowledgeable about aspects of the voting and democratic process, but there is also further work to be done:

• 90% of respondents understood that every one of their preferences has the potential to count.

• 76% knew that they did not need to express a preference for each candidate on the ballot paper.

• 36% agreed that information about voting procedures is not widely available.

• 51% mistakenly thought they needed their polling card to vote.

Other findings of this face-to-face study of just under 1500 randomly selected respondents are that:

• Registration Prompts: For first-time voters, the influence of their friends, family, school or work was key to encouraging them to get on the electoral register with 27% citing this as important. 24% were prompted by social media, newspaper, TV or radio ads which were a focus for An Coimisiún Toghcháin during the election campaign.

• Automatic Voter Registration: 73% agreed with Ireland having a system of automatic voter registration, despite 99% of recently registered respondents considering the registration process to be easy.

• Reasons for Non-Voting: The highest reasons given by registered people for not voting on 29 November, were being away on the day (30%) work commitments (27%) with 12% pointing to disinterest in politics, indecision at 11% and 6% who said their vote did not matter. 37% of those who did not vote were not on the register.

• Voting Experience: 98% of voters surveyed found the voting experience to be very easy or quite easy.

There are two distinct elements of NEDS. The first focuses on broad issues around the quality and functioning of Ireland’s democracy with a particular emphasis on areas relevant to the remit of An Coimisiún Toghcháin. This includes questions such as those summarised above around voters’ experience of voting and registration, levels of political interest and knowledge and voters information sources. This data will be used to benchmark An Coimisiún’s performance and guide its future initiatives. A key priority for An Coimisiún is to understand the reasons why people do not vote so the sample includes 324 non-voters.

The second part of the NEDS includes questions which are a key focus for academics in international Election Studies around the world regarding whether and how people use their vote, motivations around voting choices, government satisfaction, political attitudes and the factors that influence these. Questions in this part of the study were selected by the academic members of the NEDS Management Board. Collecting data in these areas also allows Ireland to be part of comparative research on political and electoral systems and democracy.

Welcoming this data, Art O’Leary, Chief Executive of An Coimisiún Toghcháin said:

“The data published today again highlights the value of An Coimisiún Toghcháin’s National Election and Democracy Study to learn more about the experience and perspectives of current and potential voters as well as contributing to academic scholarship about democracy and elections.

“We simply have to understand more about who non-voters are and why they are staying away from the polls, and so this data will feed into other research projects we are advancing through our broader Research Programme and our public campaigns and engagement.”

– ENDS-

Editor’s Note:

Please note embargo until Monday 19 May at 00.01

The detailed General Election NEDS study is available at:

https://cdn.electoralcommission.ie/app/uploads/2025/05/16112738/GE_NEDS.pdf

Previous NEDS studies can be viewed: https://www.electoralcommission.ie/what-we-do/national-election-and-democracy-study

The raw data and detailed codebooks can be obtained by emailing research@electoralcommission.ie

The data collection and analysis published today was conducted by RED C Research and Marketing.

1. The NEDS is a key project under Strand A of An Coimisiún Toghcháin’s Research Programme 2024-2026.

2. Data was collected using a probabilistic sampling framework in which respondents were chosen at random using Eircode data provided by GeoDirectory. There were 1426 respondents with 324 of these non-voters in the General Election. Data was collected between 1st December 2024 and 28th February 2025. The survey took place at the respondents’ residence, which was selected at random using Eircode data provided by GeoDirectory and stratified in accordance with Pobal’s Social Deprivation Index.

3. The face-to-face dataset was further bolstered by an online sample of 1,421 respondents (1100 voters and 321 non-voters). Unlike the face-to-face survey, the online survey data is not based on a random probabilistic sample so is not included in the summary slide deck. The online dataset and codebooks are however publicly available on request as a complement to the primary face-to-face study and will allow more detailed analysis of cohorts of smaller sample size.