Electoral Act, 1963

Forms of ballot papers.

71.—(1) At a constitutional referendum—

(a) every ballot paper shall be in the form set out in Part I of the Fourth Schedule to this Act, and

(b) the proposal which is the subject of the referendum shall be stated on the ballot paper by citing by its short title the Bill containing such proposal passed or deemed to have been passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas.

(2) At an ordinary referendum every ballot paper shall be in the appropriate form set out in Part II of the Fourth Schedule to this Act, and—

(a) in the case of a ballot paper in respect of one referendum, it shall contain a reference to the Bill or the portion of the Bill containing the proposal which is the subject of the referendum, and

(b) in the case of a ballot paper in respect of two or more referenda having the same polling day, it shall contain, in respect of each referendum, a reference to the Bill or the portion of the Bill containing the proposal which is the subject of the referendum.

(3) In applying, in the case of a constitutional referendum, paragraph (1) of Rule 3 of the First Schedule to the Principal Act, the following subparagraph shall be substituted for subparagraph (b) of that paragraph;

“(b) the short title of the Bill containing the proposal which is the subject of such referendum, and”.

(4) Subject to the next subsection, where the same day is the polling day at two or more ordinary referenda, separate ballot papers shall not be issued, but every ballot paper shall be so framed that the voter is able to record a separate vote in respect of each referendum.

(5) Where the same day is the polling day at two or more ordinary referenda and the Minister is of opinion that it is for any reason impracticable or inexpedient to comply with the foregoing subsection—

(a) the Minister may direct that separate ballot papers shall be issued for one or more or all of the referenda, and such papers shall be issued accordingly,

(b) where the Minister directs as aforesaid and the direction does not apply to all of the referenda—

(i) if there is only one of the referenda to which the direction does not apply, separate ballot papers shall be issued for it,

(ii) if there are two or more of the referenda to which the direction does not apply, the foregoing subsection shall apply to them.