While most of this is likely to have been down to people failing to register with their local authorities, huge numbers of people were disenfranchised through no fault of their own.

Naomi McElroy from Dublin was one such person. Although McElroy moved house recently, she decided to remain registered at her parents' house and when a franchise officer called around, he was told this.

When they came around to McElroy's current address, she also told them she was registered at her old home. But when no polling card arrived in the run-up to the election, McElroy enquired and found she was not on the register at all.

"I couldn't believe it, " she said. "For the first time I had a real interest in this election campaign. I had researched my candidates and was all set to cast my vote. I'm still so annoyed about it.

I don't know why I'm even paying taxes given that my only chance to have a say on how this country should be run is gone."

What annoyed McElroy most was that her British boyfriend Matt was able to vote, while she could not.

Emmet Barry from Dublin had a similar problem when he discovered three days before the election that he was registered to an address he had lived in previously . . . he has moved twice since then. This was despite getting letters addressed personally to him from the Taoiseach and Cyprian Brady.

"I don't understand how it could have happened, but I'm so annoyed, " he said. "If you don't have a vote, you can't have your say. It's as simple as that."

In Laois, an 80-year-old man who hasn't missed an election in 60 years was told he was not on the register and wasn't able to vote, while another elderly man in the Midlands lost his vote when his son with the same name moved house and got two polling cards instead.

According to Labour spokeswoman on Education Jan O'Sullivan, hundreds of people in her constituency of Limerick lost their vote when they were taken off the register. "Elderly people particularly, who have always been on the register, did not realise they had to be put back on again, " she told the Sunday Tribune. "I was told of a whole complex of elderly people who all lost their vote. These kind of problems need to be addressed."

When Emma Somers was taken off the electoral register in her mother's home in Dublin, neither she nor her mother were aware it had happened.

"I was very angry when I was told I couldn't vote at my polling station, " she said. "But when I called the franchise officer, I was told someone had called around to my house and I'd been taken off. We can't remember it happening, and while I'm sure it did, I think what was happening should have been made more clear."

It was very clear to 'Mark' what he should do when he received two polling cards in the post. He told Newstalk during the week that he voted twice, simply changing his shirt to disguise himself and spoiling the second vote.

"I just wanted to see if I could do it, " he said. He could.