A Weekend Vote IS the Best Option

You can sign the petition here

Some rebuttal to the Minister as Fine Gael fluffed their lines a little.

We feel weekend voting is of necessity to our democracy. Below are a number of points we make in rebuttal of the Minister;

1. The Minister is wrong to assert there is no evidence that weekend voting raises turnout. There are a number of research papers by esteemed political scientists which suggest that a weekend vote will raise turnout. The comparisons internationally need to take account of the effect of non-proportional systems in depressing turnout. Material from Europe (our closest comparators as they hold for proportionality) suggests that more people are inconvenienced by weekday voting than weekend voting.

A democracy requires the largest possible turnout and that calculus has to inform any decision on the election day. There are clear trends to suggest that weekend voting does have a positive effect overall and that effect is larger than the effect of its inconveniencing a small number of voters. We accept that weekend voting is not as effective as weekend voting, nonetheless Franklin’s findings from a study of 29 democracies that weekend voting may add 5%-6% to turnout is significant.

It is the biggest study of its kind and subsequent studies have added only minor caveats to its implementation (such as aviod a bank-holiday weekend).

The Minster cited the example of Camden in the UK. However the failure of the experiment was seen by the Chief Executive of hte Borough points out that it was the confusion of Sunday-Thursday voting that was primarily responsible for the failure. Any experiment would need to be done on the weekend only, he asserted. It was less an issue of popular preference for Thursday and more one of generalised confusion. This is understandable considering the odd-ness of an election held on ta Sunday and a following Thursday.

2. The duty of religious observation is not an argument against weekend voting, per se. All of us are calling for voting on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Elections have already been held on Fridays and Saturdays in the State so precedent is there. Accommodation can be reached on this matter in the interests of the democratic process and the neutrality of the state viz a vie religions.

3. A point by Minister Roche suggested that it would clash with sporting events. People will spend a few hours a day on a Saturday playing sport - likely to pass polling stations on their way and vote at their leisure. This compares to a Thursday where commuters (nearly 300,000 of them) will spend 60%-70% of polling time in work and commuting.

4. The minister failed to explain to the people who would be expected to shoulder the burden of a weekend vote (commuters, students, school children) why this government feels that Thursday is a better day than a weekend. No reason why it is prefereable to close schools on thursdays and force the cost of childcare on hard working families instead of using a Saturday when schools are shut and child care is not an issue.