Weekend Vote
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On Tuesday the 24 April the Dail will debate a bill which will ensure all elections held in the state will occur on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday. This is an essential move for Irish democracy as we have noted. We encourage all of those who have signed the petition and supported the campaign to email their local td to support the bill or the party whips [ Billy Kelleher -FF, Emmet Stagg - Labour, Paul Kehoe - FG, Dan Boyle - Greens, Liz O Donnell - PDs and Aengus O Snodaigh - SF] to impose a free vote. This would give all TDs the opportunity to voice their own opinion on this issue not just the parties. An issue like this goes beyond party politics.
To email your TD the convention is firstname.lastname@oireachtas.ie
Update 26/03/2007: Thanks so much to everyone who has signed the petition, favourite comment so far “Thursday Voting is Temporal Gerrymandering”. Love it.
So far we have gotten explicit support from the Green Party (Ciaran Cuffe, Dan Boyle), Labour (Eamon Gilmore) with signatures from Sinn Fein (Caoimhin O Caoghlaoin, Aoenghus O Snodaigh) and Finian McGrath.
Update 28/03/2007: More coverage from spunout.ie and also we now have support from Fine Gael on the petition thanks to signatures from Michael Ring TD and Tom Hayes TD.
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A few weeks back Wagger predicted the election will take place on Thursday the 17th of May. Thursday was the day as Bertie would not want students and workers voting. Now it looks like Bertie is going to do just that. We all have the right to vote, however such a right is useless if one cannot exercise it. Students and commuters face tough treks to get to a polling booth on Thursday and it is deeply unfair to make it harder for them to participate. The right to vote is nothing without the ability to do it and by opting for a Thursday the Taoiseach is likely to disenfranchise and alienate many voters. So I have started a No Election on Thursday petition. Please add your voice. This is the text.
We believe in democracy and that everyone should have the right to vote. By having a polling on a Thursday it is clear that the intent of the government to limit the ability of many who are away from their homes to vote in this election and exercise that right, such as commuters not getting back to their homes till late at night and students living away from their constituencies. We believe that this is wrong and that all elections must be at the very least late opening on Fridays and include a Saturday or Sunday vote. This will allow everyone to have their say and exercise their right to vote.
If you believe, as we do that everyone should have the chance to vote, then go here and sign the petition.
Edit: The following email was sent to An Taoiseach this afternoon to highlight our petition. If you feel strongly I encourage you to email him (bertie.ahern at oireachtas.ie) as well as signing the petition.
“Taoiseach, We feel that the decision to hold a forthcoming General Election (which you suggested to RTE today 22/3/07) is not in the best interests of Irish democracy. Irish citizens have a right to vote but if the government does not give them the ability to exercise that right, it is useless. To avoid disenfranchising and alienating many young workers and students the Taoiseach should be doing everything in his power to get them to the polling booths. This has to include having the general election on a Saturday or Sunday.Too much is already expected of commuters in this country. They sit in traffic and work hard for themselves and the country. Others such as students spend long periods away from home in order to attain qualifications to work. It is unfair and unreasonable to demand that they turnout on a Thursday, a day of work, instead of facilitating voters by holding the election on a Saturday or Sunday. As a result we at irishelection.com have begun a petition at irishelection.com/weekendvote to support our calls for a weekend vote.
Yours Sincerely”
Later on we found out that in 2002 the Taoiseach had this to say about Saturday voting (in the Nice referendum rerun).
Interviewer: Why did you pick Saturday as polling day?
Taoiseach: The view of the government…was we should give Saturday a chance…We have never done that in this country so hopefully we can maximise a very high vote. There is a lot of third level institutions in this country now and Saturday brings them home. there is a lot of other people around the country working all week and Saturday will bring them home to their constituencies
Interviewer: Isn’t that a risk with so much apathy?
Taoiseach: This should help them, young people particularly the students unions and others have said they need to be facilitated…by going on a Saturday it gives them an opportunity to turn out
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