PART XIII

Postal Voting

64. —A returning officer for a constituency shall, as soon as practicable after the adjournment of a Dáil election for the purpose of taking a poll, send to each Dáil elector whose name is on the postal voters list for the constituency a ballot paper and form of receipt in the form directed by the Minister, and if the ballot paper duly marked by the said elector and accompanied by the said receipt duly signed by him is received by the returning officer before the close of the poll, it shall be counted by him and treated for all purposes in the same manner as a ballot paper placed in a ballot box in the ordinary way at the taking of the poll.

65. —(1) The provisions of this Part shall apply to the issue of ballot papers to, and the return of such ballot papers by, electors whose names are entered in the postal voters list pursuant to section 14 (c) subject to the following modifications—

(a) an elector whose name is so entered in the postal voters list, in order to cast his vote, shall, in the presence of an authorised person and no other person, do the following things in the following order—

(i) produce to the authorised person a ballot paper (in relation to which the authorised person shall satisfy himself that it is unmarked) and a form of declaration of identity in the form directed by the Minister;

(ii) complete and sign the said declaration of identity;

(iii) hand the declaration of identity to the authorised person who shall, if he is satisfied as to the identity of the person who has signed the declaration of identity, witness the signature;

(iv) mark, in secret, his ballot paper;

(v) place the marked ballot paper in the ballot paper envelope and effectually seal such envelope;

(vi) place the ballot paper envelope and the completed declaration of identity in the covering envelope and effectually seal that envelope;

(b) a reference to “receipt”, in relation to documents appropriate to such electors, shall be construed as a reference to “declaration of identity”; and

(c) a reference to “receipt duly signed”, in relation to such documents, shall be construed as a reference to “declaration of identity duly signed and witnessed”.

(2) In this section—

“authorised person” means a person appointed by the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs to be an authorised person for the purposes of this section;

“ballot paper envelope” and “covering envelope” have the meanings specified in section 68 (3).

66. —(1) The ballot paper to be sent to postal voters shall be in the same form as, and indistinguishable from, the ballot papers delivered to other electors.

(2) The receipt sent with the ballot paper to postal voters shall be in the form directed by the Minister and shall have printed thereon the instructions to the voter.

67. —The returning officer, his assistants and clerks, members of the Garda Síochána on duty, the agents of the candidates appointed for this purpose under section 60 , and no other person, except with the permission of the returning officer, may be present at the proceedings on the issue of ballot papers and on the opening of the postal voters ballot boxes and the envelopes contained therein.

68. —(1) The returning officer shall give each candidate at least twenty four hours' notice in writing of the time and place at which, if the election is contested, he will issue the ballot papers to postal voters and of the number of persons each candidate may appoint to attend the said issue and, where any subsequent issue of ballot papers is made, the returning officer shall give each candidate, as soon as practicable, notice of the time and place at which he will make such subsequent issue and of the number of persons each candidate may appoint to attend such issue.

(2) Each ballot paper issued shall be marked with an official mark which shall be embossed or perforated so as to be visible on both sides of the paper, and the number (including polling district letter) and name of the elector as stated in the postal voters list shall be called out, and a mark shall be placed in a copy of the postal voters list opposite the number of the elector to denote that a ballot paper has been issued to the elector, but without showing the number of the ballot paper issued to him.

(3) The returning officer shall place in an envelope addressed to the postal voter—

(a) the ballot paper,

(b) the form of receipt,

(c) an envelope (in this Part referred to as a “covering envelope”) addressed to the returning officer, and

(d) a smaller envelope marked “ballot paper envelope”,

and shall effectually close the first-mentioned envelope.

(4) All envelopes addressed to the postal voters shall be counted and forthwith delivered by the returning officer to the nearest head post office or such other office as may be arranged with the head postmaster; and the postmaster shall stamp with the date stamp of An Post a form of receipt to be presented by the returning officer, stating the number of envelopes so delivered, and shall immediately forward such envelopes for delivery to the persons to whom they are addressed.

(5) Where an envelope containing a ballot paper and other documents referred to in this section is, before polling day, returned to the returning officer as not having been delivered to a postal voter, the returning officer may readdress the envelope and send it by post to that voter.

69. —(1) The returning officer shall provide a ballot box or ballot boxes for the reception of the covering envelopes when returned by the postal voters.

(2) Every such ballot box shall, at the time of the issue of the postal ballot papers, be shown open and empty to the agents present, and shall be sealed with the seal of the returning officer and the seals of such of the agents as desire to affix their seals, and shall be marked “Postal Voters Ballot Box”, and with the name of the constituency, and the returning officer shall make provision for the safe custody of such ballot box.

70. —The returning officer shall, immediately on receipt of covering envelopes, place them unopened in a postal voters ballot box.

71. —If the returning officer receives, before the close of the poll, an envelope other than a covering envelope and finds therein any document which it would have been appropriate to send to him in a covering envelope, he shall—

(a) securely close the envelope;

(b) endorse thereon, and sign, a statement that the envelope has been closed by him with the contents intact;

(c) place the closed envelope in a postal voters ballot box;

(d) thereafter treat the envelope as a covering envelope;

and any reference in this Part to a covering envelope shall be construed as including a reference to an envelope which has been dealt with by the returning officer in accordance with this section.

72. —At the hour fixed for the closing of the poll the returning officer shall either—

(a) seal each postal voters ballot box so that no further papers can be inserted therein, or

(b) forthwith open each such box and extract and deal with the contents thereof in accordance with section 73 .

73. —(1) The postal voters ballot boxes shall be opened by the returning officer, in the presence of the agents, if any, before the time fixed for the counting of the votes.

(2) Not less than 4 days before the polling day, the returning officer shall give each candidate notice in writing of the time and place at which he will proceed to open the postal voters ballot boxes, and the envelopes contained therein, and of the number of agents each candidate may appoint to be present at the opening. The returning officer shall give the said agents reasonable facilities for overseeing the proceedings at the opening of the boxes and all information with respect thereto which he can give them consistent with the orderly conduct of the proceedings and the performance of his functions.

(3) When a postal voters ballot box has been opened, the returning officer shall extract the covering envelopes therefrom and count and note the number of envelopes so extracted, and shall then open each covering envelope separately and examine the receipt.

(4) If the receipt is found to be duly signed, he shall place the receipt and the ballot paper envelope in separate receptacles or, if the ballot paper is not contained in a ballot paper envelope, he shall place the receipt in the appropriate receptacle and shall place the ballot paper, without unfolding it, in a ballot box in accordance with section 75 .

(5) If he is not satisfied that the receipt has been duly signed, he shall endorse the receipt “rejected” and shall attach thereto the ballot paper envelope, without opening such envelope, or, if there is no such envelope, the ballot paper.

(6) Where a receipt does not appear to accompany the ballot paper envelope, the returning officer shall open the envelope, and if it is found to contain the receipt, he shall deal with such receipt and ballot paper in accordance with this Part.

(7) Any receipt not accompanied by a ballot paper, and any ballot paper not accompanied by a receipt, shall be marked “rejected”.

(8) Where a ballot paper and receipt are received together, the ballot paper shall not be rejected solely on the ground that the ballot paper and receipt were, or either of them was, not placed in the proper envelopes or envelope or that any such envelope was not closed.

74. —(1) The returning officer shall on a request being made by the agent of a candidate show to the agent any receipt which he is rejecting on the ground that it has not been duly signed.

(2) The returning officer shall keep all rejected receipts with the attached envelopes or ballot papers, as the case may be, separate from all other documents.

75. —When the covering envelopes in any postal voters ballot box have been opened and their contents dealt with under the two preceding sections, the returning officer shall open each unopened ballot paper envelope (other than the ballot paper envelopes referred to in section 73 (5)) and place the ballot paper, without unfolding it, in a ballot box previously shown open and empty to the agents present and sealed with the seal of the returning officer and the seals of such of the agents as desire to affix their seals, which box shall be subsequently treated as a ballot box for the purposes of section 114 .

76. —(1) The returning officer, as soon as may be practicable after the completion of the issue of the postal ballot papers and in the presence of the agents of the candidates, if any, shall make up in separate packets, sealed with his own seal and sealed by such of the agents as desire to affix their seals, the marked copy of the postal voters list and the counterfoils of the ballot papers: provided that where any subsequent issue of ballot papers is made, the sealed packet containing the marked copy of the postal voters list may be opened by the returning officer for the purposes of that issue, and on completion of that issue, the list and the counterfoils of the ballot papersat that issue shall be made up and sealed in accordance with this section.

(2) As soon as the returning officer has completed the placing of the ballot papers in the ballot box mentioned in section 75 he shall seal up in separate packets—

(a) the receipts which accompanied any ballot papers duly accepted;

(b) any rejected receipts, with envelopes, if any, attached; and

(c) any rejected ballot papers, with envelopes, if any, attached.

(3) Where covering envelopes are received by the returning officer after the close of the poll, or where any envelopes addressed to postal voters are returned as undelivered, the returning officer shall not open such envelopes and shall, subject to his power of readdressing such envelopes pursuant to section 68 (5), seal such envelopes up into separate packets.

(4) The returning officer shall endorse on each packet mentioned in subsections (1), (2) and (3) a description of its contents, and the name of the constituency and the date of the polling day at the election to which such contents relate.

(5) The returning officer shall forward to the Clerk of the Dáil at the same time as he forwards the documents mentioned in section 129 —

(a) the packets referred to in the foregoing provisions of this section, and

(b) a statement in such form as may be directed by the Minister showing the number of ballot papers sent to postal voters, and giving with respect to such papers the particulars required by the form.

(6) Any envelopes returned as undelivered and any covering envelopes received by the returning officer after the said packets have been forwarded to the Clerk of the Dáil shall not be opened and shall be forwarded to the Clerk of the Dáil.

77. —In this Part “agent” includes the election agent of a candidate and any person appointed by or on behalf of a candidate to be present at the issue of ballot papers to postal voters or the opening of postal voters ballot boxes.