Voter Registration and Student Postal Voter Deadlines Coming Up

09 September 2025 – An Coimisiún Toghcháin, Ireland’s independent electoral commission, will be visiting college campuses around the country to encourage students to register and to make a plan to vote in this year’s Presidential election on 24 October.

An Coimisiún’s National Election & Democracy Study (NEDS) of the 2024 General Election found that the 18–34-year-olds surveyed made up the biggest cohort of eligible voters (68%) who have yet to register and so missed the chance to vote in the most recent election.

After meeting thousands of young people at Electric Picnic in August, An Coimisiún’s college registration and information drive is a further opportunity to meet young people where they are, and to encourage them to use their voice to choose Ireland’s next President after Michael D. Higgins.

An Coimisiún’s campus drive is in addition to other information campaign events including webinars with disability rights advocates, school visits, engagement at the National Ploughing Championships, street canvasses and other public events.

An Coimisiún staff will be on the road, starting this week with a visit to the University of Limerick on Wednesday, 10 September where they will be answering questions about voting and encouraging students to register at checktheregister.ie before the 7 October deadline.

In addition, students registered at their home who are living elsewhere while attending an educational institution in the State are eligible to apply for a postal vote before the deadline of 29 September.

The following college visits are included in An Coimisiún’s campus programme leading up to the Presidential election:

• 10 September at the University of Limerick.
• 15 September at Trinity College Dublin.
• 23 September at Maynooth University.
• 24 September at Dundalk Institute of Technology.
• 25 September at University College Cork.
• 30 September at TU Dublin, Grangegorman Campus.
• 2 October at ATU Galway City & ATU Mountbellew.

Art O’Leary, Chief Executive of An Coimisiún Toghcháin stated:

“At Electric Picnic in August we met so many young people who are engaged, interested and want to use their votes to decide who will be our next President but who had questions about registration and voting.

“Students are often not aware that if they are away from their registered home address on polling day because of college, they can apply to move their vote or apply for a postal vote.”

“Roughly 60,000 young people have turned 18 since the last general election and many of them are now college freshers. We look forward to meeting them and registering them to vote in their first ever election.”

For further information, please contact:

Brian Dawson, Communications and Public Engagement Manager, 

An Coimisiún Toghcháin, The Electoral Commission,

086 0749344 Brian.dawson@electoralcommission.ie 

– ENDS-

Editor’s Note:

An Coimisiún Toghcháin, The Electoral Commission

An Coimisiún Toghcháin is a statutory, independent body, established on 9 February 2023 with responsibility for a broad range of electoral functions set out in the Electoral Reform Act 2022.

An Coimisiún is central to Ireland’s electoral system, carrying out a range of existing and new electoral functions, including:

• promoting public awareness of, and working to increase public participation in the State’s electoral and democratic processes through education and information programmes;
• overseeing the modernised Electoral Register, making recommendations and setting standards in relation to its maintenance and updating;
• responsibility for the registration of political parties;
• the regulation of online paid-for political advertising, ensuring transparency in respect of online political advertisements during the period of an election or referendum campaign; (Legislation not yet commenced); and
• responsibility for the investigation and monitoring of online disinformation, online misinformation and manipulative or inauthentic behaviour online during election campaign periods, as well as functions to prevent manipulative or inauthentic behaviours online. (Legislation not yet commenced).
• making reports for the Minister in relation to local electoral boundaries;
• preparing research programmes and conducting research on electoral policy and procedure, and providing advice, as required, to the Minister and Government;
• the preparation of ex-post reports on the administration of electoral events;
• the decision-making, oversight, secretariat and supporting services associated with explaining the subject matter of referendum proposals, the promotion of public awareness of referendums and encouragement of the electorate to vote at referendum polls; and
• the conducting of reviews and making reports in relation to the constituencies for the election of members to the Dáil and the election of members to the European Parliament.

It is anticipated that the initial set of functions assigned to An Coimisiún will be expanded upon as it builds capacity and expertise.