Rock the Vote throw in the towel?

nesf

upmeath wrote:

It's easier said than done, most students in Dublin knew nothing about this option until about 3 days before the deadline.

This might come across as harsh but it's a person's own responsibility to check out these things. If you are old enough to vote you are old enough not to have your hand held. I have sympathy for people who didn't manage to get registered but if they really cared about voting they should have checked this out long before the election, like during the big "are you on the electoral register" campaign.

ninty9er

What Nesf said^^^

A polling station attendant said it to me too....turnout at her box was 72% out of an area of young couples and growing families. She had turned away 4 people that had moved house and weren't on the register. She said it was their own fault for not checking they were on it.

Ógra FF, Young FG and Young Greens all did a postsal registration drive at UL, only FG and Greens did theirs too late. I stood in the courtyard outside the Students Union, next to the only shop in the middle of campus and the main ATM and less than 50 people took forms in the 3.5 hours I was there....quite obviously putting the idea of a postal vote before them....I know at least 5 people who used postal votes yesterday. Meanwhile all of the bar staff lastnight told the PDs to get real that "I'm voting Fianna Fáil" which really put a smile on my face:D

Anyway I have a count to be at at 8am...bed time methinks

John_C

nesf wrote:

This might come across as harsh but it's a person's own responsibility to check out these things. If you are old enough to vote you are old enough not to have your hand held.

I agree to an extent but we only found out that the election would be on a weekday when it was called. It's unreasonable to expect someone who lives in 2 places to try to second guess Bertie and predict where they'll be when he heads up to the Áras.

If it was a simple case of a few people being inconvenienced or being lazy I'd agree more but a reasonably big portion of the electorate had to jump through akward hoops to get the vote and if they all did, there's no way the county councils would have coped so I think it's fair to blame the system here.

cooperguy

I know alot of people im college who did not have the chance to vote. Not only was it called mid-week but it was called during examtime in alot of colleges. Is there a reason im missing that legislation cannot be passed saying that elections have to be carried out on a weekend? The government are always claiming they want to increase voter turnout, this is a gauranteed way to do it. Its not just college students that are effected by this plenty of people work far from where they are registered to vote.

And as other people have mentioned, Rock the vote is a cringe worthy name for the campaign. And im supposed to be the target of the campaign !!

Crash

Simply put, I doubt that a high student turnout would be advantageous to the current government. So why call it at a weekend?

Hotblack Desiato

John_C wrote:

I agree to an extent but we only found out that the election would be on a weekday when it was called. It's unreasonable to expect someone who lives in 2 places to try to second guess Bertie and predict where they'll be when he heads up to the Áras.

:rolleyes: So register in Dublin then and if the election turned out to be a weekend (and every single political correspondent predicted that it wouldn't) stay up in Dublin for one weekend... is there some law I don't know about which states that the big bag of washing has to be brought home to the mammy every single weekend?
As someone posted earlier, and quite rightly, if you're old enough and mature enough to vote you don't need your hand held.

Awayindahils

&#231 wrote: »

Simply put, I doubt that a high student turnout would be advantageous to the current government. So why call it at a weekend?

Students wern't the only people disenfranchised by the calling of a mid week election. Even with being open till 10.30 last night for people who commute long distances for work it was highly disadvantageous. Alot of commuters are long gone by 7.30 in the morning and we all know the amount of stuff that needs doing in the evenings. It's been said over and over again how the mid week election is out of step with the needs of several groups of people though apperently once you're elected you get to stop listening.

RainyDay

Bambi wrote:

Is is possible for an election to be void if a certain percentage doesn't turn out?

it absolutely should be. :mad:

That's like saying the beatings will continue until morale improves. Are you seriously proposing to rerun elections when party coffers and party workers are exhausted, so less advertising, less canvassing - and you hope to get a better turnout next time round.