Barred from voting

shay_562

Slightly random question here: My aunt lives in Birr and went to vote a little after 9PM (earliest she could get there), only to be told that the polling station was out of ballot papers and she wouldn't be able to vote. She knows the guy who was working there at the time, and he told her that for a station covering 379 voters they were given 200 ballot papers at the start of the day and, when they realised around the middle of the day they were running seriously low, an extra 50 were dropped in by the county registrar. He also told her that he had turned away several other people shortly beforehand, and my aunt met a few more of her neighbours on the way out, and told my uncle when she got home that there was no point in him going down; overall, this affected maybe a dozen people, but in principle, it's kinda shocking, no? I'm just wondering if anyone else heard about stuff like this happening or if this was an isolated incident? On its own it's not too awful, but if this kind of thing was happening across a large number of polling stations, it'd represent a pretty huge failing on the part of our electoral process, no? Also, anyone who has worked in a polling station know if giving less than 60% of the electorate is standard practice? Seems pragmatic, but grim.

Incidentally, as of yesterday evening, the county registrar's office and her local (FF/FG, can't remember which she said) TD have yet to get back to her. Only the local SF guy has been in touch. Much as I disagree with SF's policies, and parish-pump politics in general, you have to admire their dedication to the grassroots.

marco_polo

shay_562 wrote: »

Slightly random question here: My aunt lives in Birr and went to vote a little after 9PM (earliest she could get there), only to be told that the polling station was out of ballot papers and she wouldn't be able to vote. She knows the guy who was working there at the time, and he told her that for a station covering 379 voters they were given 200 ballot papers at the start of the day and, when they realised around the middle of the day they were running seriously low, an extra 50 were dropped in by the county registrar. He also told her that he had turned away several other people shortly beforehand, and my aunt met a few more of her neighbours on the way out, and told my uncle when she got home that there was no point in him going down; overall, this affected maybe a dozen people, but in principle, it's kinda shocking, no? I'm just wondering if anyone else heard about stuff like this happening or if this was an isolated incident? On its own it's not too awful, but if this kind of thing was happening across a large number of polling stations, it'd represent a pretty huge failing on the part of our electoral process, no? Also, anyone who has worked in a polling station know if giving less than 60% of the electorate is standard practice? Seems pragmatic, but grim.

Incidentally, as of yesterday evening, the county registrar's office and her local (FF/FG, can't remember which she said) TD have yet to get back to her. Only the local SF guy has been in touch. Much as I disagree with SF's policies, and parish-pump politics in general, you have to admire their dedication to the grassroots.

It is a bit of a shocking state of affairs, they must have severly underestimated the turnout.

From your post I gather more than 250/379 people voted, which is way above the national average. Understandable error, but quite frankly inexcusable.

Khannie

marco_polo wrote: »

Understandable error, but quite frankly inexcusable.

+1.

Disgrace tbh.

Darragh29

The same people who are telling you they have it right on Lisbon can't even organise an election without a polling station running out of ballot papers!?!?! I've heard it all now...

sink

Darragh29 wrote: »

The same people who are telling you they have it right on Lisbon can't even organise an election without a polling station running out of ballot papers!?!?! I've heard it all now...

Political parties don't organise the ballot boxes themselves, that would be open to fraud. It's the civil servants that are supposed to organise the ballots. One thing has no reflection on the other in this case. It was a disgrace, someone should have been severely disciplined, but you know the unions would probably go on strike so nothing will happen and it will be left to be repeated in the future.

Darragh29

sink wrote: »

Political parties don't organise the ballot boxes themselves, that would be open to fraud. It's the civil servants that are supposed to organise the ballots. One thing has no reflection on the other in this case. It was a disgrace, someone should have been severely disciplined, but you know the unions would probably go on strike so nothing will happen and it will be left to be repeated in the future.

The Minister for the Environment is ultimately accountable as far as I know. Whatever about the civil servants looking after the operational end of the thing, in 2008 this is just unacceptable. If this happened loads of places, there would be an outcry because it would be intepreted as an interference in the democraic process.

sink

Darragh29 wrote: »

The Minister for the Environment is ultimately accountable as far as I know. Whatever about the civil servants looking after the operational end of the thing, in 2008 this is just unacceptable. If this happened loads of places, there would be an outcry because it would be intepreted as an interference in the democraic process.

Do you think John Gormley should personally oversee each polling station in the country to make sure some muppet doesn't make a stupid mistake like this?

Kovik

sink wrote: »

Do you think John Gormley should personally oversee each polling station in the country to make sure some muppet doesn't make a stupid mistake like this?

Yes.

harney

sink wrote: »

Do you think John Gormley should personally oversee each polling station in the country to make sure some muppet doesn't make a stupid mistake like this?

Well, if he's nothing better to do that day...................:p

faceman

sink wrote: »

Do you think John Gormley should personally oversee each polling station in the country to make sure some muppet doesn't make a stupid mistake like this?

As long as he went there on his bicycle.

shay_562

marco_polo wrote:

From your post I gather more than 250/379 people voted, which is way above the national average.

Yep, that's what the guy in the polling station said - bear in mind that it's Laois-Offaly, so Cowen's fan club could well have been pushing up the numbers.

Finally got an explanation from the county registrar's office today - apparently, my aunt was told that there were more ballot papers on the way and that she should wait. She and the other people who were turned away just managed to completely mishear this as "Leave, and don't vote at all". :rolleyes: So basically, some jackass at the polling station messed up and is now lying like crazy to cover his own ass, so the registrar's office maintain that no mistakes were made and it's my aunt's own fault that she couldn't vote.

On the one hand, I'm glad to know that (a) this was just an isolated case of one muppet and (b) that there are actual procedures in place for when they run out of ballots, and this guy just didn't know/couldn't be arsed to call and get more of them. On the other, it's a little worrying that that one muppet prevented multiple people from voting, and that the reaction from on high isn't "We'll look into it" but instead "You were wrong, and that's that." Ireland's civil service ftl.

LostinBlanch

I heard on morning ireland on friday morning that people weren't allowed to vote at a few different polling stations. One closed at 9.30 turning people away when they wanted to vote. A couple of others didn't have enough voting papers.

In any mature democracy this would rightly be seen as a disgrace.