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April Fools!!! Rock the Vote and make lots of money!
Read more about: Irish Election, Irish Election 2007, Media, Youth
You know the way they say the Irish are late for everything, even their own funerals? Well so it seems is any major campaign aimed at mobilising the youth vote in Ireland.
Maman Poulet would usually have no problem in supporting anything that mobilises young people to stick their number 1 (and other votes) on the ballot paper. However Rockthevote.ie with lots of money and no sense it seems are launching in April 07 - that’s one month before the general election folks. Whilst young people are being turned off voting in their droves by crap debates and crapper posters, this crowd aim to break through all the noise in 43 constituencies complete with a Constituency and Community Director and get young people out to vote. Oh yes and when the electoral register is closed and supplemental registration is extremely difficult to do.
You’d think they might have been at colleges throughout the country last September, or at the Oxygen festival last summer or at the GAA finals in September, rocking the vote… Just an idea like…
It would seem that they have money to burn and lots of fancy job titles and descriptions. Would the American who wears a cheap watch and travels economy have anything too do with backing it? Honestly I thought AP had more sense on what they got involved with since the other problems in the past 18 months. In fact wouldn’t any funder of this non partisan initiative have said ‘nice idea but you should have launched last year’?
One wonders if this is aimed at giving a group of mates a cushy job for a few months. Where else other than the website are the jobs being advertised? And if those behind it are trying to keep it hush hush until they launch (that’s right in April!) who’ll get to know about how to apply for a job?
Well now you have read Maman Poulet you might get your CV ready for the easiest money you might ever make. It’s a shame as it could have been such a good idea if executed in a timely manner. Actually thinking about some other private philanthropist funded projects I know about this is probably how they like to organise - ie. tell no-one, give the jobs to your mates and launch late and effect no change.
Or maybe with it’s April Launch date this whole thing is an April Fool’s joke????
(Originally Posted here )
Hey there,
The questions you have raised are really spot on and very important.
The starting date does confound common sense, and so you’re entirely right to ask why April 2nd? The answer is that the starting date is based on watertight international evidence. The experience from elsewhere is conclusive and the statistics speak for themselves: starting more than 4 weeks before the day of a national election is highly ineffective - 6 weeks is the absolute limit, with the last week being the most crucial. Like it or not that is the reality and that is the reason we are launching on April 2nd and not March 2nd or tomorrow.
The reason why we were not around for the closing of the electoral register was because we were not really around at that time - we wish we were as we would have done something appropriate at that time, still waiting until April 2nd for our big push to get people out to vote though! The register is a massive issue, but remember you can still be added to the register up until 15 days before polling - admittedly it is complicated and is something we will address as soon as we are ready.
The whole idea only began to take proper shape as the register was closing. November, December and January have been spent conducting extensive research into non-voting in Ireland and how to tackle it using experience and evidence from abroad.
As for the job postings, they were for the benefit of a number of student union officers around the country, who we have been holding meetings with recently. The website is only up in a highly limited and ugly-duckling form. Those jobs will be advertised elsewhere and the closing date extended by some weeks - provided we grow our funds - we are afterall running on very little at this point.
The whole campaign is dependent on funding continuing to increase and that means finding people who see beyond partisan confines and are prepared to put much needed money into something very worthwhile.
I would be very interested in meeting with you. Just drop me an email. The criticism is much needed - it helps us zone in on important questions that we need to answer.
Talk soon,
Paddy
Dude, copying and pasting the same comment on three different blogs isn’t good manners in the blogging world. This still sounds like snakeoil sales.
just spotted that myself. looks like SU Pr if you ask me
Watertight international evidence?
statistics that speak for themselves?
Glengarry Glen bollocks.
And they have a job of campus director and another of third level and post primary director.
Fact is that having young people on the register in the place that they are living is raised by young people as the biggest barrier they face when an increased participation is looked for. To be fair the various political youth wings make a big push each autumn other third level campuses.