European Parliament Elections 2024 - Friday, June 7th

Yes, there is. There is a mountain of evidence to prove that primacy at the top of the ballot paper helps candidates.

Hit me with the links then. It was a genuine question.

When you get a huge piece of paper that is longer than your arm, you are not going to go through all the names.

Why? I did.

So next time when we have 40 candidates on the paper, you'd be happy with weeks and weeks of counting?

Wheres the word "could"? You made a definitive statement.

On the second point, I literally just asked for the evidence to support the statement. That is evidence that should exist. Studies likely have been done. It was an actual question but you made your statement up on gut feeling and not on evidence. You didn't present it that way.

Imagine being too much of a scumbag for AfD, the mind boggles.

OK sorry for not writing it up more clearly. Some posters just take everything written as literal.

Unfortunately there's no such thing as automated randomisation, so there would always be accusations of bias.

RTE Tweeting

A first count is not expected in Ireland South until 6pm at the earliest. It is still expected Seán Kelly will be elected with a surplus of roughly 13,000 votes.

Predictions that Kelleher Billy and McNamara Michael will also get seats. And from RTE news that Ní Mhurchú Cynthia is still in the runing?

They keep moving the news of the count it was 4pm earlier.

However the reality is most people have an idea of their preferences before they enter the polling booth, and any impact of ballot ordering is minimal and unlikely to have any impact on the outcomes of an election.

In a very tight race, absolutely it could affect the outcome. Given we know that it does, and its amplifed the longer the ballot, perhaps we should change it in the interest of fairness?

Remaining with alphabetical is fine, no candidates are complaining are they? The moment you change the order you need to justify it, and that will open the Pandora's box of candidates arguing (rightly) over why the names were ordered in such a way.

I remember in 2011, Eamon O'Cuiv had his last name as Cuiv O', rather than O'Cuiv. There were complaints about it at the time. In a tight race he knew being near the top was an advantage.

He got reelected by the way, one of the few FF to do so.

If people were interested in a fair system, that doesn't convey advantage to certain candidates over others, they should be open to the idea.

This is a man who before he got elected as an MEP was best known for waving around a jar of dirty water in the Dáil. He also decided to not put on a pair of trousers for a committee meeting during COVID. Brass neck to be going on about inexperience and the competency of others.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0261379415300998

This link explains it a bit.

And if you went through and marked all candidates in the euro elections you are in a minority.

Just because you did, doesn't mean that others did.

If you are suggesting O'Cuiv only got elected because of name ordering in the ballot you are deluded

Cheers. I found a study from UCD specifically looking at Ireland which puts the advantage at around 1.25% which is significant enough to warrant change (in my opinion).

And if you went through and marked all candidates in the euro elections you are in a minority.

You made a pretty global comment. Plenty of people will go through the full list and look at the names.