Diarmuid Pepper Reporting from Electric Picnic

THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION has set up shop at Electric Picnic and has registered hundreds of people to vote ahead of the upcoming presidential election.

Art O’Leary is the chief executive An Coimisiún Toghcháin / the Electoral Commission, which is responsible for Ireland’s electoral system and encourages the electorate to vote.

This year, the Commission is at Electric Picnic to encourage voter registrations.

“I hate boring people with statistics,” O’Leary told The Journal, “but one statistic to bear in mind is that nearly 70% of people who are not registered to vote are under the age of 34, so we have to hang out in places where they hang out.

“I would love if my own teenage children watched the news and read the broadsheets, but they don’t and we have to be in the physical spaces where this audience is.

“We have to meet them where they are, so we decided to come to Electric Picnic and we’re registering people to vote for our next head of state.

“It’s a very exciting weekend for us and we have registered hundreds of people to vote already in the last 24 hours since we’ve been here, it’s been a great success.”

O’Leary asked people at the festival to drop in on the tent in the Mindfield area of the festival and noted that the tent is open until close of business Sunday.

“We’ve got t-shirts, bucket hats, tote bags, badges, and you can enter a draw for VIP passes to Electric Picnic as well,” said O’Leary.

There is also a mock ballot at the Electoral Commission tent, where people can cast their ballot for their favourite music genre.

“One of our main aims is for people to be able to understand how to vote and how their vote works,” said O’Leary.

“So we have a mock ballot where we’re asking people to rank and order their preference and their favourite type of music, we’ll have the results of that in the next week or so.”

When asked if there is much stress in the Commission offices ahead of the upcoming presidential election, O’Leary remarked that “we don’t talk about stress in our building”.

“This is an exciting opportunity and it’s a glorious opportunity to learn.

“In the last 18 months, we will have had every single type of election that it’s possible to have in this country, and each time, we work very hard to get people onto the register and get out to vote.”

Last year, the Commission encouraged 500,000 people to register to vote for the first time.

“We need to convert all these registrations into voters,” said O’Leary. “It’s really easy to register to vote at checktheregister.ie.

“And come along at Electric Picnic and we’ll do it for you but if you’re at home, go online and it just takes three minutes.

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“In the time it takes to boil the kettle for a cup of tea or coffee in the morning, you can register to vote.

“Your vote is your voice. If you don’t vote, you allow somebody else to speak for you.”

When asked if there if is one thing O’Leary would like to alter in order to encourage higher voter turnout, O’Leary replied: “We can’t change anything quickly in advance of the presidential election.

“But as soon as we know the election date – the media is talking about 23 and 24 October – we make a plan.”

He added: “We know people have busy lives and in the general election, over half the people who didn’t vote on the day said they were away from home, or had work commitments or caring responsibilities.

“So this does need a bit of planning but we want people to get out and vote for their next head of state.

“We’re here at Electric Picnic – you’re going to sit through an encore in terms of the presidential election for seven years, so it’s important that you have your voice heard on polling day.”