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Temporal Gerrymandering: Screw You Bertie!
Read more about: Bertiegate, Fianna Fail, Irish Election 2007, Irish Politics, Petitions, Vote Saturday, Youth 
They’ve announced it.
The general election is set to be held on May 24th.
I won’t be voting. This is not because of apathy. This is not because the difference between the two possible coalitions is minimal. This will be because of what one angry disenfranchised voted called Temporal Gerrymandering.
Anybody who works or studies outside of their home constituency will not be able to vote in this election. This makes a mockery of the expensive Rock The Vote campaign. What is the point of asking young people to take an interest in politics and exercise their vote when you set the election for a date when a very large portion of that demographic group will be unable to vote? In other countries, they pair weekend voting with postal voting, so that even those citizens who live abroad have their voices heard. Why not here?
So, the question is:
Qui bono?
Well the Taoiseach had this to say:
Friday did not work. I was all over The City on the Friday. What people do now is get out of the city on a Friday afternoon. You might say that that would help in the country, but the polls in The City were very, very low after 6 o’clock
If you believe the Taoiseach, the election date was chosen to facilitate Dubliners who like to travel at the weekends. Now I am no mathematician, but I reckon that the number of Dubliners who take half days on a Friday to travel is approximately one thousand. Students and commuters who live, study and/or work outside their home constituencies number in the tens of thousands. So why then, has Bertie chosen to disenfranchise the larger group? Could it be, that his party would suffer it the larger group were not denied their right to vote?
While many, many politicians of many different parties came out and supported the campaign for weekend voting, it is unlikely that these politicians will vocalise their opposition to the Taoiseach’s decision. With only a few weeks left until the election, what politicians would waste their breath championing the cause of people who will not vote come election day?
Bertie has done it again. His move to disenfranchise a large portion of the population is so blatant that few outside the Fianna ail party would deny it. But he will continue to stonewall anybody who questions him about it. He will waffle for a few moments, offering nonsensical excuses and people will become bored. The tactic worked when he took bribes from rich businessmen, so Bertie has no reason to believe that it won’t work when he steals our votes.
I’d like to think that those who have been disenfranchised this year will wait in the long grass for Bertie and his henchmen. I’d like to think that someday we will give him a bloody nose in response to this slight. The truth is, we won’t. Half a decade down the line, the theft of our votes in 2007 will be the last thing on our minds. Our minds will no doubt be on tax-cuts.
Like I said, we only have ourselves to blame.
hear hear
What Bertie really meant was that Dubs who had been priced out of the Dublin housing market and now lived in Kildare, Meath, Louth, Wicklow and even Carlow, but how still had a vote in their old home place in Dublin simply drove to their semi down the country instead of voting twice and getting stuck in traffic on a Friday evening like he expected them to.
If you won’t register to vote in the town you spend 5 days out of 7 that isn’t Bertie’s fault or in fact anyone’s fault other than your own. You can still register if you don’t vote you have NO right to complain about the result or government decisions for the next 5 years. If you really want a change in government and to see Bertie out on his arse then suck it up and register.
Stephen, I’ve lived in Dublin for just over a month at this stage, returning home to Sligo at the weekends. I will live at my current address for around another three months at the most. At that point, I’ll either move to some new address in another part of Dublin, or maybe move to Galway. All the time, I will continue to return to my home in Sligo at any point I’m not working.
I have no interest in voting for any candidate for Dublin North. Frankly, I have no right to decide who should represent this area. I care about Dublin North about as much as I care about Longford or Carlow. And I don’t think I’ve even ever been to Carlow. This is not a presidential election where we decide whether we want Bertie or Enda leading us on the great road to prosperity. We vote on who we want to represent our constituencies in the Dail.
I do not give a fig who represents Dublin North. I’ll leave that up to the people of the North Dublin community to decide. I care about who represents my community in Sligo. I have a right to vote for the candidate who I think will best represent my community. Now I’m going to try to register for postal voting, but given the time constraints, I’m not overly optimistic. Let me tell you, if I succeed, then the FFer who would have got my number one vote had the vote been held at the weekend most certainly will not get it, unless he comes out against Bertie’s decision.
All of this is pretty irrelevant though when it comes to examining the motive’s behind Fianna Fail’s decision to hold the election on a Thursday. Perhaps, you’re right when you suggest that students and commuters who fail to register to vote in the places where they work or study and who can’t vote as a result only have themselves to blame, I don’t think you are but even if this were the case, you have to ask yourself why Fianna Fail is attempting to increase voter apathy by making it more difficult for certain voters to exercise their vote? Between today and the election, you will here many ads encouraging the people of this country to exercise their vote. Why do you think this is? The government as a duty to promote democracy in this country. They have a duty to make participating in our democracy as easy and as a safe as is possible. Fianna Fail are deliberately making if more difficult for certain people to vote without any decent explanation.
Why the hell are we closing down half the schools in the country (at considerable expense to the state) in order to have an election when we could have the election at the weekend when there would be no need to close the schools and a larger portion of the population would have the opportunity to vote?
mmmhh I have to say while a pain in the proverbial *ss it wouldn’t be a reason why I would allow myself to be disenfranchised.
In fact in the first few years I lived in Dublin I still had my vote in the north and would travel home to use it.
I hear what you are saying and agree with a lot of it, but seriously use your vote, wherever it is. It is too important.
I was going to write something simular but you ticked all the boxes I wanted to tick.
Stephen If you won’t register to vote in the town you spend 5 days out of 7
How about when you live in a town that you don’t spend the hours of polling in. Like many people who spend the entire day commuting and working miles away. Should they register where their office is. Which of course is impossible.
Sorry if I offended anyone but if people care so much about voting then making an effort once in 5 years is not too much to expect. In a lot of aspects of life people look for others to blame and this strikes me as yet another example. Stephen McNamara
Stephen – I’m fortunate to live and work within a reasonable commute but your comments seem to be a deliberate snub to the vast swath of the commuters of Ireland and all those unfortunate to be in third level education away from home.
Glib remarks about scapegoating are unconstructive and petty.
People who cannot get home due to commuting or study and are deliberately having their democratic right removed through sleight of hand and deft manipulation of the situation to discommode them are not moaners. They are citizens of the state who are being deliberately disenfranchised and you need to understand this before making any more comments. Our forefathers fought and died for the privilege of self determination and you wonder why people are the slightest bit emotive about this issue.
Good man, Bertie. Stick it to us!
What times do polling station open/close?
I live and work where my vote is. But I am away on a business trip so I lose my vote. I asked about a postal vote and was told that if you are out of the country for a short period you can’t have one.
If prisoners can get one, why can’t I?
If the vote was on a Friday (or Saturday) this wouldn’t be a problem.
stephen, I’ve explained over here http://www.irishelection.com/04/postal-vote-from-lex-ferenda/#comments that you have to register where you are ordinarily resident on the 1st of September, now tell us how people who live are somewhere “5 out of 7 days” are to be able to sort that one? There is a good reason that day was selected it is to ensure students as one particular group can’t probably be registered where they are for for 5 day out of 7.