turnout

conchubhar1

why is turnout so low?

what has been the highest and lowest turnout in the history of the state?

what to do to rise the turnout?


i was disgusted when i saw the turnout, and the british one was shambolic .

markopantelic

for europeans? i think ireland had the highest in the EU, maby along with Cyprus. the problem is EU, it needs to reach out its people, tonight was the first time i felt this 'european' feeling partially due to rtes coverage.

lithuanias was something 44% in 2004, and now today 15% or something!!! what was the UKs turnout?

conchubhar1

30% in uk i think


no, generaly in ireland. like the local election turnout was 55% or so

that is high-ish i suppose. but needs to be higher

leeroybrown

I think that it's relatively simple. The turnout is in Ireland for the EU elections is directly related to how relevant voters feel the EU is to them and how 'connected' they feel to it.

I also think that this shows up in the different turnouts in the four constituencies. In the North West the turnout is naturally high (63.4%) as many voters perceive the importance of defending their status in the EU. The North West turnout will likely have seen a boost from the pro-Ganley/anti-Ganley vote. The South is nearly as high (59.2%) as defending their agricultural economy is seen as important. The East has similar agricultural issues but is dragged lower (56.8%) by the suburbs of Dublin. Finally Dublin is low (50.8%) as many voters don't have large single concrete issues to focus them. The previous EU election had a very similar turnout.

In the UK turnouts are less than spectacular for Parliamentary elections and as a nation Europe is perceived as a lot less relevant to ordinary voters than here. The current cross-party expenses mess will probably also have left a lot of people with no party to vote for and thus they'll have stayed home.

leeroybrown

For the local elections I think it's a similar situation except that it's a case of whether voters feel that their representatives do anything for them. Again, I think that people from rural/remote and smaller urban areas are more likely to have some kind of connection (good or bad) to one of the councillors that will get them out to vote. That's borne out by some very high turnouts in the more rural constituencies.

Obviously, the local and EU turnouts are directly coupled with the factors in both cases stacking away from the urban and towards the rural when it comes to turnout.

conchubhar1

well something needs to be done to get more people interested and active in voting

55% or around that is not acceptable for representation on even the local level never mind representing us in europe