Reform Voting Rights for Emigrants

baalthor

Do you know how many people abroad will be eligible to vote?
Apparently there are almost 700,000 Irish born residents in Great Britain plus there are probably thousands of additional Irish citizens who would be eligible.

Even if a only a proportion register to vote, they would have a big impact on the outcome of the election.

You have said that a referendum will not be required.
Looking at the Constitution, Article 16 implies that the constituencies are located in this country as it refers to the census to determine their population. So a referendum might be needed to implement your proposal.

Looking at Mexico, since 2005 Mexican citizens abroad can vote in Presidential elections only. According to wikipedia (no source given) only 32,000 did so.
The low number may be partly due to the fact that getting on to the electoral roll in Mexico is not as easy as it is in Ireland ...

nesf

If you're not normally resident here I don't see why you should get to vote in our elections. I really don't.

Guy:Incognito

Amhran Nua wrote: »

Well the way I'd see it is, Irish citizens should have the right to vote in Irish national elections and referendums, because they are Irish citizens. You don't lose that citizenship when you go abroad for a holiday or because you have no choice, to find employment, due to the failures of the Irish government. Why therefore should you lose the attendant rights that come with citizenship?.

You stop contributing to the contry when you leaving. Voting is one of your ways to contribute to the runnign of the country so you should be here if you want to vote.

They are better off having voting rights in their adopted countries , that actually affects their lives.

A good proportion might not have a clue or not care whats going on in Irish politics and end up just pickign a random candidate for a laugh when they have a spare minute online while looking at facebook.

Plus if it's being made easy for them to vote, I want online voting too.

ei.sdraob

well they have voted with their feet ...

Victor

What of people with dual or multiple citizenships? Should all the Sinn Féin supporters in the north be allowed vote here? What votes would they be allowed take part in? What constituency would they vote in?

ei.sdraob wrote: »

ill turn that proposal around, any immigrants in this country who can only vote on local elections, should they be also to vote in national and eu elections??

EU citizens are allowed choose between voting in their home country or their country of residence.

Victor

I see amongst your 17 or so signatories, you have the interestingly named "Niamhniamh, Carlow"

Amhran Nua wrote: »

There are Irish clubs and societies in every country the Irish emigrate to - where are the French and German clubs and societies?

Do you men the Alliance Française and the Goethe Institut? The British Council? Instituto Cervantes? And their cultural equivalents the Irish Pub?

Amhran Nua wrote: »

Thats an interesting point, but there are records held by various state agencies, from Education to Revenue, and it wouldn't be too difficult to collate these to confirm eligibility.

Oh, big brother.

Amhran Nua wrote: »

Again, most of the developed world has no problem with the proposition.

You'll need to give links to the details of the schemes operated in other countries. How many of those countries have large diaspora?

mdebets

Victor wrote: »

EU citizens are allowed choose between voting in their home country or their country of residence.

Only for Local and EU elections. EU citizens are not allowed to vote in national elections in other than their home countries.

LostinKildare

Amhran Nua wrote: »

No other nation out of 115 with emigrant voting, except the US, connects taxation with voting rights, and the US does so only for those earning more than $85000 per annum. A nation is not a business, a country is not a corporation, and taxpayers aren't shareholders.

Amhran Nua wrote: »

Quite a few emigrants have sent and continue to send money home from abroad, but away and beyond that rather hard to quantify issue, linking taxation to voting rights is something only the US does, and thats only for people who are earning far more than average amounts of pay.

I don't want to drag this off-topic, but you are wrong on this point. The US does not link taxation to voting rights. Your petition is correct that

Amhran Nua wrote: »

the US is the only developed nation that requires its citizens abroad to pay taxes on money earned abroad, and even then the only people affected are those making over $85,000.

but tax requirements are separate from voting rights. If you are a US citizen and do not file your annual US tax return and pay any tax due you will have trouble with the IRS, but that has no bearing on your right to vote in US elections.

Democrats Abroad is working hard to increase voter registration of US citizens in Ireland. Don't make their job harder!

/End of public service announcement. Back to your discussion.:)

Dannyboy83

The way I see it, nothing really ever changes here, because the people who suffer the most/want change the most usually have to leave.
I think giving emigrants voting rights could be a good antidote to the Irish political inertia of the last 80 years.
Not the be all and end all answer, but an enabler of some sort i.e. allow some change to happen.

It seems that no change is really able to happen within our current system.