Ballot box blues

WITH just days to go before some of 150,000 registered voters across Co Galway head to the polls huge confusion remains among those living in constituency boundary areas.
Direct contact has been made by Galway Co Council with 10,000 voters along the new constituency boundary of Galway East and Roscommon-Galway to remind them of the changes and their polling station. While the changes were introduced in 2013, the effect of the dramatic carve-up of towns such as Dunmore and Mountbellew and the switch of areas such as Glenamaddy and Castleblakeney are only fully being realised now.
There are 68,432 people eligible to vote in Galway East on Friday and a further 16,230 people living within the county boundary now vote in Roscommon-Galway.
The confusion has also led to some candidates fearing voters simply won’t bother going out to vote. Voters who once only had to walk to a polling station have been told to vote at a different one, up to eight miles away.
There is also the bizarre situation in Dunmore and Mountbellew where polling stations in the national schools will be home to polling booths for both of the constituencies.