Electoral Act, 1992

Offences relating to ballot boxes, ballot papers, nomination papers, certificates of political affiliation, official marks etc.

138.—A person shall be guilty of an offence if—

(a) wilfully and without lawful authority, he takes, destroys, conceals, opens or otherwise interferes with any ballot box or packet of ballot papers, or any packet of papers or documents of any kind then in use or intended to be used for the purposes of a Dáil election, or any ballot paper account or marked copy of a register of Dáil electors prepared or used for the purposes of the election, or any unused ballot paper, or

(b) he maliciously destroys, tears or defaces a ballot paper, or

(c) he forges or counterfeits a ballot paper or the official mark on a ballot paper, or

(d) without lawful authority, he supplies a ballot paper to any person, or

(e) he fraudulently puts into a ballot box any paper other than the ballot paper which he is authorised by law to put in it, or

(f) without lawful authority, he takes a ballot paper out of a polling station, or

(g) he forges or fraudulently defaces or fraudulently destroys any nomination paper or any certificate of political affiliation or any authorisations under section 99 or section 100 or any official envelope or form of declaration of identity or form of receipt used in connection with special voting or voting by post, or any other form or document used at an election, or

(h) he produces to the returning officer a nomination paper, knowing the same to be forged, or

(i) he counterfeits the official mark, or

(j) without lawful authority, he removes, destroys or damages any instrument for placing the official mark on ballot papers or makes or has in his possession any imitation or counterfeit of any such instrument.