Project targets voter turnout in Dublin's inner city

Natasha Corrigan is in her early 30s and has never voted in a general election.

Politics, she says, has passed her by.

"Growing up in the inner city, we were never really educated on voting. It was never a topic that was brought up in school," she says.

Natasha lives off Gardiner Street, in the Dublin Central constituency. At 51.2%, it registered the lowest turnout in General Election 2020.

"It was just something that we just never discussed. Even looking at all the posters around, they were just something that I'd ignore because I was never interested, because I didn't know any information about it," she says.

Recently though, Natasha completed a voter information course. The result? She no longer is apprehensive about the process of voting.

"It was an eye opener, just to have a better understanding about it," she says. She was shown how to register to vote and how to vote using our PR-STV system.

"[We were shown] … how simple it was to actually register to vote, and how easy it was to vote. It was just so much better to have an understanding of it and to be educated on it," she says.

Natasha now rues the elections she did not vote in down through the years.

"I've missed a lot. And to be honest with you, I'm raging that I did, because I didn't know how simple it was to vote and to register. So now that I do, I want to try to educate other people on how simple it is to vote, even family and friends, to show them that you literally just take five minutes to go on, add your details, register and then go and vote."

The course Natasha completed is run by the Dublin Adult Learning Centre, and operates from a building in Mountjoy Square which, in 1919, hosted Dáil Éireann.

Today though, it deals with the very modern problem of low voter turnout.

The project aims to increase turnout in the city and elsewhere.

"There's lots in the course," says the co-ordinator Fionnaigh Connaughton O'Connor.

"It has the practical element of making sure people register to vote, and it is something we would ask people to do when they do the course. But also, we role play how to vote, because, in the literacy context, it can be very intimidating for people to actually know how to fill in a ballot paper. The act of voting itself can be very intimidating for a lot of people. But we also cover things like the history of voting and give that view that people fought for the right to vote."

She also says, in her experience, there are a variety of reasons why people do not vote.

"It would be in line with age, some young people don't vote. If you come from a house where people talked about voting even, you know, I remember, even as a child myself, my parents bringing me to the polling station. So, if you don't have that kind of culture of voting in a family that can actually impact on you not voting."

"But definitely we would see with our students here, if people have poor literacy issues, if people have low levels of education, or if people feel kind of disengaged in general, kind of excluded, that's part of it," she says.

Natasha will now vote on Friday, casting her ballot in a general election for the very first time.

"I'm actually excited. I feel like I'm growing up for the first time. I feel like an adult for the first time, because I know how to vote now. I feel more confident because I know what expect."

The message from Fionnaigh and Natasha is a simple one, 'use your vote' and 'every vote counts'.

However, here in Dublin Central and elsewhere, the challenge to get more people out to cast their ballot remains.