Provisions for the visually Impaired at local elections in Kilkenny

Kilkenny County Council has set up a Freephone number to assist visually impaired voters in the upcoming Local Elections on 24th May, 2019.

By dialling 1800 500 000, voters can listen to the details of the candidates running in their local electoral area in the order in which they appear on the Ballot Paper. Each individual candidate has a corresponding number assigned which will be on the Ballot Paper Template available at the voter’s polling station.

Ballot paper

The Ballot Paper Template is a transparent plastic device that is placed on top of the ballot paper. It has a number of accessible features which facilitate the marking of the ballot paper in secret by the visually impaired voter including braille, raised lettering, and other tactile features. It is removed once the ballot paper has been marked and the ballot paper is placed in the ballot box, entirely indistinguishable from all the other marked ballot papers.

The Local Electoral Areas are: Callan/Thomastown, Castlecomer, Kilkenny and Piltown.

If you are a vision impaired voter wishing to vote in secret at the forthcoming Local Elections, you can ask the Presiding Officer at your polling station to attach a Ballot Paper Template to your ballot paper.