Thursday polling day????

Glenbhoy

The_Minister wrote:

Because it's unconstitutional.

As is the right to bear arms in the US, and yet many of us think it should be amended.
Anyway, for anyone interested it appears that the election will be prior to May 20th, that would leave us May 10th and May 17th as possible polling dates. How did I come by this information I hear ye ask - well, I obviously don't know for certain, however, as some of you may know I'm keen punter and I've been monitoring the polling date on betfair for a while now. Someone has just placed a bet of €1200 on the election being prior to May 20th at 1/5 - every other date is trading at 9/1, that suggests to me that someone in the know has some information.
Put it this way, there has been a total of €1300 placed on this market on total, of that, €1282 has been bet on the election being prior to May 20 - remember this punter has risked €1200 to win a paltry €240 - trust me, he either has too much money or knows something.

Seth Brundle

Glenbhoy wrote:

As is the right to bear arms in the US,

Isn't it constitutional rathern than unconstitutional?

Glenbhoy

kbannon wrote:

Isn't it constitutional rathern than unconstitutional?

indeed, but unconstitutional to deny the right, ah I give up, error by me.

ninty9er

copacetic wrote:

you probably should go on since all these points are absolute rubbish

Saturday doesn't rule out any of the people you listed. Who are these people who work all weekend and have the week off?

As Bertie said back at the NICE ref:

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

Well it seems that you are very good at picking quotes up and bashing other people's personalities, but Nice happened in October when all the caravan parks have shut off the power and students don't have exams and it still didn't solve the problem of weekend workers.

Your point in relation to weekend workers and the rest of the week just undermines your whole argument. There are tens of thousands employed on 3/4/5 cycle shifts that work 12 hours on Fridays Saturdays and Sundays in companies such as Dell, Analog Devices, Intel. You seriously need to wake up and smell the coffee if you think the whole coutry grinds to a halt on Friday evening and doesn't reboot until 9 on Monday morning

Chakar

After the election we can compare the voting turnout with that of the 2002 election. However looking at the figures for the 2002 and 1997 elections there is no clear trend that we can gather inferences from. The figure for 2002 was 1,858,000 voters voted compared to 1,789,000 voters voting in the 1997 election. If the Taoiseach holds an election on Thursday then it might very well increase turnout. However its not definite at this stage.

copacetic

ninty9er wrote:

Well it seems that you are very good at picking quotes up and bashing other people's personalities, but Nice happened in October when all the caravan parks have shut off the power and students don't have exams and it still didn't solve the problem of weekend workers.

Your point in relation to weekend workers and the rest of the week just undermines your whole argument. There are tens of thousands employed on 3/4/5 cycle shifts that work 12 hours on Fridays Saturdays and Sundays in companies such as Dell, Analog Devices, Intel. You seriously need to wake up and smell the coffee if you think the whole coutry grinds to a halt on Friday evening and doesn't reboot until 9 on Monday morning

your point was that less people would vote on saturday as more people are working and apparently all in caravan parks. it's transparently crap.

Earlier you said it doesn't make any difference to people working if the election is on a work day i.e monday to friday, so why do you now say that it being on a saturday will stop people who work then from voting. You can't have it both ways. People on swing shift are as likely to be working a weekday as a weekend day so that makes no difference between a saturday and a weekday either. Every one of your points about why thursday was a great day for voting is the opposite of what you are now saying. It's like scrap saturday or gift grub reading your posts.

oscarBravo

copacetic: accusations of trolling are against the charter; don't do that again. Also, the questions in your last paragraph are out of order.

copacetic

oscarBravo wrote:

copacetic: accusations of trolling are against the charter; don't do that again. Also, the questions in your last paragraph are out of order.

apologies, post edited.

ninty9er

So why is Thursday any different or any day of the week for that matter. You can't argue that people who work on Thursday won't be able to vote just because they've spent hours getting to/ being at and coming from work...It happens 7 days a week.

I'm not saying people can't vote on Saturday, but Saturday is no more convenient to the general population than any other day of a summer's week

Seth Brundle

Are you for real?
I leave home before 8. I work all day and get home often after 7. I get a bite to eat and spend a few moments with my family before I get my kids ready for bed.
By the time I would have time to vote, it will be closed.
My situation is the same as so many others out there. It is these people that Bertie will be hoping don't vote (assuming it is on a Thursday).
Saturday suits most people despite the fact that some still have to work. The majority work during weekdays. You seem to presume that because some people work saturdays then it shouldn't be held then. Using your logic then holding the voting times during the nighttime is "no more convienent" because some people work then also!

ateam

Into the latter half of April...are we any closer to an election date?

copacetic

ateam wrote:

Into the latter half of April...are we any closer to an election date?

we are certainly closer, no arguing with that, as to what date it will be, who knows..

Glenbhoy

Jaysus, did nobody read my post earlier about the betting patterns - as an election was not called today, i predict with 99% confidence that the election will be on May 17th.

ninty9er

Glenbhoy wrote:

Jaysus, did nobody read my post earlier about the betting patterns - as an election was not called today, i predict with 99% confidence that the election will be on May 17th.

Having been out canvassing this eveing; if I was a betting man I'd be putting my money on the 24th. And from the response on the doorsteps I wouldn't be putting money on FG/Labour

Also addressing the issues of disrupting a weekend away being too bad...how about spending 5 mins at a polling booth on your way home from work so you don't have to go out to do it after you get home. The extra 10 minutes it'll take to park get in and go home is hardly going to cause people to die of starvation.

Edit**Spelling** wouldn't want people to vote in boots now would I!!

Villain

Out of interest and I'd appreciate an honest answer, roughly what percentage of people from the number you called to actually spoke to you? i.e. answered the door and discussed topics with you.

Glenbhoy

ninty9er wrote:

Having been out canvassing this eveing; if I was a betting man I'd be putting my money on the 24th. And from the response on the doorsteps I wouldn't be putting money on FG/Labour

Seriously, follow the money, people don't bet large amounts at very short prices unless they know.
As for the result, it's my opinion that this is an election that the loser will benefit from - I don't see why anybody would want the next 5 years, and I don't think it matters which of them get in, they've all got the same ridiculous inflationary policies - do they not understand, cutting taxes for everybody just means that prices rise as too much money is chasing too few goods, equilibrium will be reached again (apologies for the off topic rant). Anyway, fair play to you ninty9er, there's not many bother with politics these days, there's fewer still interested in canvassing, a thankless task if ever there was one.

zepp

ninty9er wrote:

Also addressing the issues of disrupting a weekend away being too bad...how about spending 5 mins at a polling booth on your way home from work so you don't have to go out to do it after you get home. The extra 10 minutes it'll take to park get in and go home is hardly going to cause people to die of starvation.

Still says nothing about why Thursday voting is better. Do you have any arguement that stand up at all?

ninty9er

irish1 wrote:

Out of interest and I'd appreciate an honest answer, roughly what percentage of people from the number you called to actually spoke to you? i.e. answered the door and discussed topics with you.

Green issues are coming up, but the green candidate in Limerick East isn't canvassing to my knowledge and we're ready for the Green Questions. Had one guy nearly ask us in for coffee, he waited on the doorstep for 5 minutes while the candidate was talking to other neighbours and then just shook his hand and told us trhe country need a bit more energy but not a change of govt. (about 25-30 yo male , at a guess single professional, and homeowner). The older people mainly said..."and what party is he"...."oh Fianna Fáil, we're Fianna Fáil". There was the husband and wife, FF and FG traditions respectively who happened to be discussing the demise of FG when we called. And the young families were delighted to see someone who's only around the 40 mark, who can relate to wiping nappies and dragging 4 kids everywhere at the weekends.

Recognition is also something he didn't have the last time out and he's being recognised on doorsteps now so he's happy the profile is there.

Traffic was the main concern lastnight and not even the elderly people raised Health.

I only had one door closed in my face and it was a foreign national with a puzzled look saying something like "no thank you" in pigeon English.

Even the kids on one road (Primary school) were interested

zepp

All the youth wings including Ogra Fianna Fail support weekend voting now. Seemingly


http://ograshinnfein.blogspot.com/2007/04/youth-wings-unite-to-demand-weekend.html

ninty9er

zepp wrote:

Still says nothing about why Thursday voting is better. Do you have any arguement that stand up at all?

I don't have an argument as to why ANY day is better than Saturday. Saturday is a bad day at this time of year...and just because that doesn't apply to people on this board who seem to think that only Saturday is acceptable, doesn't mean it's not true!!

Seth Brundle

Whats special about this time of year that makes Saturdays bad?

ninty9er

It's not just Sayurdays. My whole point is that it doiesn't matter what day of the week it happens....there will still be people who will consider voting to be inconvenient.

@Zepp: I asked Lorcan about the particular link. Basically, we haven't ever ever advocated Thursday voting, we will continue to lobby for the weekend and encourage students and those working away from home to exercise the right to a postal vote as any day is inconvenient at this time of year and in particular for studnets.


Saturday still causes me trouble though, which is why I have a problem with it. Thursday suits me better as I don't work during the week and will be finished college in plenty of time to vote

Seth Brundle

Sometimes you seem to be posting with your FF hat on and other times you seem to be speaking for yourself. I don't know about others but it gets confusing for me trying to figure out which is which.

ninty9er wrote:

Having been out canvassing this eveing; if I was a betting man I'd be putting my money on the 24th.

Is the election date going to be decided by people you canvas?

copacetic

kbannon wrote:

Sometimes you seem to be posting with your FF hat on and other times you seem to be speaking for yourself. I don't know about others but it gets confusing for me trying to figure out which is which.


Is the election date going to be decided by people you canvas?

it's certainly confusing for me! but he must have more than the two hats, he seems to have a different opinion for every post..

brianthebard

ninty9er wrote:

It's not just Saturdays. My whole point is that it doiesn't matter what day of the week it happens....there will still be people who will consider voting to be inconvenient.

That's obvious. But the whole point of the thread (which you seem to have forgotten) is that Thursday polling will stop a whole section of society from voting, or at least make it harder for a lot of them. There are always going to be people working on a certain day or time but this isn't a case of lets get 100% voter turnout, its trying to find the best possible day that puts out the least number of people.

Time Magazine

brianthebard wrote:

That's obvious. But the whole point of the thread (which you seem to have forgotten) is... trying to find the best possible day that puts out the least number of people.

I think ninty9er is fully aware of this and is also aware the date will be selected on the basis of the best possible day that puts out the least number of FF people.

GerardKeating

kbannon wrote:

Are you for real?
I leave home before 8. I work all day and get home often after 7. I get a bite to eat and spend a few moments with my family before I get my kids ready for bed. By the time I would have time to vote, it will be closed.

So go to the polling station on the way to/from work. For most people it would take less time to do it this way, rather than making a special trip. The polling stations usually open from 07:00hrs to 21:00hrs.

brianthebard

Ibid wrote:

I think ninty9er is fully aware of this and is also aware the date will be selected on the basis of the best possible day that puts out the least number of FF people.

I'm afraid that didn't really come across in his posts.

Seth Brundle

GerardKeating wrote:

So go to the polling station on the way to/from work. For most people it would take less time to do it this way, rather than making a special trip. The polling stations usually open from 07:00hrs to 21:00hrs.

Well if its a non-weekend voting date then I have no bloody option! The simple fact is that Saturday or Sunday will suit the majority of people but that seems to be irrelevant to those that choose the election date. As Ibid said, the date will be chosen to suit (in this case) FF!

brianthebard

On the news they said that Bertie had mentioned the fourth of July, which would be the last possible date. I think he's taking the p!ss at this stage, its all complete guesswork. I imagine he will want to have sorted out the nurses strike before the election though, which might be why he's stalling.