My local polling station today.....

ward2wise

Don't know if I was surprised or not but all the people working in my polling station today were either retired Gardai or full time civil servants.Checked with some other people about other polling stations and in some cases its like a family business with father, daughter and son working-not necessarily in the same booth.Definitely no unemployed required here.I hear it pays well.:(

Taxipete29

These jobs have always been about who you know. To the best of my knowledge they are not advertised and the money paid is Tax Free.

Zuiderzee

Are immeadiate family of candidates allowed to do this kind of work in a local polling station?

i.e. can the son or daughter of a candidate be a returning officer?

Dinner

Zuiderzee wrote: »

Are immeadiate family of candidates allowed to do this kind of work in a local polling station?

i.e. can the son or daughter of a candidate be a returning officer?

Probably not. The rule states that anyone who has been 'actively associated in furthering the candidature of any candidate" cannot be a presiding officer or poll clerk.

So unless you can prove that you haven't been supporting your family member then thats a no.

AnCatDubh

ward2wise wrote: »

Don't know if I was surprised or not but all the people working in my polling station today were either retired Gardai or full time civil servants.Checked with some other people about other polling stations and in some cases its like a family business with father, daughter and son working-not necessarily in the same booth.Definitely no unemployed required here.I hear it pays well.:(

The same people do tend to be called on each time an election or cause for a vote is being taken. This if I understand it correctly is to try maintain the experience of the process involved including the rules and regulations and requirements. I think it would be incredibly dangerous to have a complete wash out of all previous staff and as currently happens you will have a % rotation every time.

Yes, you will find a lot of retired gardai and public servants but there is nothing particularly exclusive about it. You will also find students, homemakers, business people, musicians, artists and so forth.

Yes, its also not unusual for sons and daughters to do it. The process as far as I am aware is that they like any other individual make contact with the returning officer and applies to be considered for a position. Nothing particularly unusual about this if in a household the father / mother is involved and the kids follow suit by making it known that they are available and interested. If selected then they will appear there. Selection is by the returning officer or their staff. There are also lots of these sons or daughters who will do it once or twice and then no longer do it as there are people from many other walks of life that do the same.

Nothing to stop anyone unemployed from being included. It's always oversubscribed so i don't think it has ever been a situation of being advertised. If someone would like to be considered then they (unemployed or employed) need to enquire about it in advance (the roles are assigned weeks in advance), and they may not get a call up first time around but as vacancies arise they will be considered. Things like the geographic area which they are in also becomes a factor.

Yes it pays well. I don't know the hourly rate equivalent but as a one off payment it is very welcome and well worth the days leave that you sacrifice.

No it isn't tax free. It was many years ago but the Revenue have seen to it that tax is deducted from any payments made. Appropriate too.

For the most part it is a mind numbing experience which should be part of the coming of age of all people of the state. Might instill some sense of what actually happens in our democratic society. Two bursts of activity during the day and a lot of yawning / wishing it was 10 o clock / reading a book / talking nonsense to whomever has been landed beside you 7am start until 10pm at night is a darn long day if you don't happen to get on with the person beside you. Oh yeah, you can really get fed up when for the 100th time you are asked "how has polling been"

The configuration of the roles tend to be a polling clerk which is likely to be new or less experienced at the process. This is normally where new persons will start (employed or unemployed / civil servant or gardai). The presiding officer is the more experienced person (generally serves time after time). If there are many polling stations present in a location, there may be a supervisory presiding officer which oversees the local area - these generally are again more experienced and selected on the basis of suitability assessed by the returning officer. One final role is an area based supervisory presiding officer of which there are few, but will visit each polling station inspect the setup, and if anything is needed to be provided they will organise it. These typically will be very suitable to the task and have much experience over many years.

I would encourage everyone to apply to do it at least once - not for the money - for the civic enlightenment (if that's an appropriate description) that it will give you.

Personal declaration here in case anyone's wondering - I've worked on polling stations in the past. I'm not currently involved so perhaps some of the detail will have changed but not that i'm aware of except for the taxing of it.

EDIT: Oh and in addition to the personal declaration - my mother and father were never involved on polling day although my granny was a presiding officer on many occasions (having previously served as a polling clerk) - her involvement was many years prior to my own though.

Dinner

AnCatDubh wrote: »

For the most part it is a mind numbing experience which should be part of the coming of age of all people of the state. Might instill some sense of what actually happens in our democratic society. Two bursts of activity during the day and a lot of yawning / wishing it was 10 o clock / reading a book / talking nonsense to whomever has been landed beside you 7am start until 10pm at night is a darn long day if you don't happen to get on with the person beside you. Oh yeah, you can really get fed up when for the 100th time you are asked "how has polling been"

After a while I got used to it. The same old, 'Hi There!', 'it's been quiet so far. Might pick up later though' and 'bye now'. Sort of comes out automatically after the 50th time.

Your post is still spot on, by the way.

And I was surprised at the amount of people who won't have a clue how proportional representation works. In fairness most of them did ask how to do it so we weren't dealing with heaps of spoilt ballots. Although if one more person asks me if they have to fill out each of the boxes. I may be tempted to say yes.

MikeC101

AnCatDubh wrote: »

For the most part it is a mind numbing experience which should be part of the coming of age of all people of the state. Might instill some sense of what actually happens in our democratic society. Two bursts of activity during the day and a lot of yawning / wishing it was 10 o clock / reading a book / talking nonsense to whomever has been landed beside you 7am start until 10pm at night is a darn long day if you don't happen to get on with the person beside you. Oh yeah, you can really get fed up when for the 100th time you are asked "how has polling been"

Could definitely sense the boredom in the local polling station! The two officers there were really chatty, they reckoned there had been about a 30% turn out by 6pm.

Harpie

Want to know the real sickening part??

They get paid 400 euro for it.

Sitting on their arses, crossing names off a list.

400 euro.


/Jealousy

Heinrich

Harpie wrote: »

Want to know the real sickening part??

They get paid 400 euro for it.

Sitting on their arses, crossing names off a list.

400 euro.


/Jealousy

They start at 06.30 and finish at 22,30. That makes 16 hours work! Take you 400 euros and didive that by 16 you get 25 per hour. It's a long two days rolled into one and you are not permitted to leave the premises! There's slihtly more to it than crossing names off a list but you, as a typical asshole know all will now either shut up or elaborate on your statement.

Harpie

Heinrich wrote: »

They start at 06.30 and finish at 22,30. That makes 16 hours work! Take you 400 euros and didive that by 16 you get 25 per hour. It's a long two days rolled into one and you are not permitted to leave the premises! There's slihtly more to it than crossing names off a list but you, as a typical asshole know all will now either shut up or elaborate on your statement.

Elaborate? Well it was a tongue-in -cheek post

And you are being reported

Have a nice day

Heinrich

Harpie wrote: »

Elaborate? Well it was a tongue-in -cheek post

And you are being reported

Have a nice day

All my days are nice. Tongue in cheek or plain silly? The latter I would say (tongue in cheek)

Report all you must if it satisfies your inflated ego. I hope it help your good self in having a good day!
:P

goldenbrown

school, 2 timid people around age 20 then a lady who was about 80, I do not want to be ageist but as the voter had to use 2 boxes for 3 votes, local eu and bye, this is a not a job for a very elderly member of society,


your vote in wrong box = spoiled vote

Heinrich

goldenbrown wrote: »

school, 2 timid people around age 20 then a lady who was about 80, I do not want to be ageist but as the voter had to use 2 boxes for 3 votes, local eu and bye, this is a not a job for a very elderly member of society,


your vote in wrong box = spoiled vote

Are you sure?

The reason there were two boxes is that one was for the bye election which concerned two in Dublin. Apart from that it is nort rocket science. In our station every voter was told (and checked) where his/her ballot papers should have gone!

GSF

In my polling station the do guys on duty were discussing very loudly why they hate the Terminator movies so much while I was trying to vote. They sounded like IT geeks to me.

Heinrich

GSF wrote: »

In my polling station the do guys on duty were discussing very loudly why they hate the Terminator movies so much while I was trying to vote. They sounded like IT geeks to me.

Did you aske them to tone down? Were there other booths you could have gone to. Surely tou had a good idea of how you were going to vote!

Maybe you could lodge a complaint to the appropriate authority.

upmeath

My polling station has the same two ladies for years, they both work for the local town council/county council.