Blogging the Vote

Why should we blog the vote exactly?

My name is JL Pagano and I am an American who has lived in Ireland for 28 years. I am honoured to have been invited to contribute to this website.

According to the official government stats from the 2002 ballot, 60% of registered voters around the country actually went to the polls. The question is, though, how many were actually registered?

I’d be very surprised if more than half of those eligible to vote actually bothered. I’d be even more surprised if half of those who did vote knew exactly how our voting system works!

Politics on this island is something that needs to be discussed on a regular basis in the public domain. Woeful health service, money squandered on useless pieces of computer equipment, cost of living rising faster than people wages and the Celtic Tiger fast becoming the Celtic Carcass are just some of the juicy topics out there right now.

Even Comrade Bertski is beginning to lose his teflon coating.

We need to blog the vote for three reasons in my book: first, to demonstrate that bloggers aren’t just a bunch of computer hacks debating over the best episode of Star Trek; second, to give the public an informed, yet totally independent source for forming their opinion on matters political; and finally, to convince them that registering and actually casting a vote on election day is something worth doing.

And so I look forward to coming back here on a regular basis and sharpening my knoweldge of what’s going on, as well as encouraging others to do so. You can be sure I’ll be hopping on my soapbox from time to time as well.