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IT’S LUNCHTIME AND already there are positive reports that turnout is looking good at polling stations around the country today.
The first voters on the islands were out in force last night.
Getting out to vote
Out on Inishbofin, presiding officer Augustine Coyne told TheJournal.ie that turnout at the polling station in the national school was at 70%.
“It was such a slow start we thought it wouldn’t reach 50%,” he said. “It all happened there in the evening after 6pm onwards.”
Meanwhile in Inisturk, turnout was high at about 46%.
Galway is reporting there is a steady turnout of 13% so far, while RTÉ reports there has been a turnout of 20% in parts of Dublin.
In other rural areas such as South Kerry, North Mayo, South Donegal and North Monaghan there are reports of a turnout between 5 and 10%.
Referendums gone by
As of yet, there are no official national percentages for turnout today, but how has it gone in the past?
Dr. Adrian Kavanagh is a lecturer in Maynooth University Department of Geography, has done the calculations and says there has been 27 referendums in the history of the Irish state.
He said the rate at which voters get out and vote has been varied, depending on the decade and the issues involved.
The voter turnout was low in the 90s and early 2000s, while in recent years, referendum turnouts struggled to reach over the 50 percentile.
The 2001 referendum on the prohibition of the death penalty had quite a low turnout of 34.79%, as did the 2001 Nice Treaty vote.
More recently, the turnout for the 2011 judge’s remuneration referendum was relatively high at 55.96%.
This is in comparison to some other recent votes such as the referendum on the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union in 2012 which struggled to get over 50%.
Children’s referendum
The Children’s referendum (which was only just enacted after a Supreme court battle) had a low turnout of 33.49%.
The Seanad referendum turnout also languished in the 30 percentile with 39.17%, with the Court of Appeal falling just short of that at 39.15%.
While the expectation is that turnout will be higher than 50% this time round, we wonder if today will beat the highest turnout ever recorded.
When was the highest turnout recorded?
Well, probably one of the most important ones – the very first referendum on the draft constitution in 1937 – the very thing that we are voting on amending today. Turnout was 75.8%.
You might wonder when the lowest turnout was?
The 1979 referendum on adoption rights and university representation in the Seanad, which only managed to attract 28.6% of voters.
Is it possible that this vote could exceed the 1937 turnout?
With more than 60,000 voters being added to the electoral register in recent weeks and the suspected increase in young voters taking to the polls, anything could be on the cards come 10pm tonight.
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So what if he served 48 days , and so what if that was the deal made by the prosecutor. He drugged and raped a 13 year old girl ! Why would you want filth like that back in your Country, no matter how good his films are..
@Blarneykite: you’re literally defending a paedophile.
@Blarneykite: you must be deaf if you cannot hear the calls for Blair and Bush to be tried for war crimes, perhaps selectively so. Anyway, back to your defence of an admitted paedophile.
A predator
“Polanski – the only polish wanted in the USA without a valid visa lol”
While I despise him as a person, polish court was right not to extradite him to the us. US made balls of the investigation and charges and wanted to change it after he served what they deemed at first. Only US court fault. Then still interesting why she wanted withdraw her case from the court, being a victim it sounds weird, who knows what was really between them, maybe consensual sex that turned wrong when he said to her bye bye. (Not that’s right anyway to have sex with 13 years old).
@Tomasz Kuchnik: a 13 year old cannot legally consent to sexual intercourse in the US. Anymore vile excuses for Polanski?
@Tomasz Kuchnik: maybe she’s just sick of this following her around and would like closure. She is now living her life and maybe she has recovered and wants it all to go away and I have a lot of sympathy for that. It must be hard for her.
@Paul Fahey: cannot consent legally, but can consent informally… not? and why are you attacking me I said I despise the man, and just thought that’s one possibility…
@Tomasz Kuchnik: what exactly is “informal consent” by a 13 year old child to sexual intercourse? I find that a most disturbing comment, I really do.
@Paul Fahey: Paul ok I need to explain that to you as for some reason you don’t get it, in 90s in the US first sexual intercourse under 13 years of age have been reported by more than 10% of the teenagers. It has been decreasing since then. So in 70s when this happened, that percentage was likely even bigger than 10% although I have no source for it. How do you know she didn’t want to sleep with him as you seem totally rejecting that version? Rape accusation is oldest trick in a book. Now before you go on holy war with me – I’m not saying this is the case. I’m just interested why you don’t let think it could have been consensual from her side then. Himself as a grown up man should have known better and of course shouldn’t touch her either way.
@Tomasz Kuchnik: you are aware how old Polanski was at the time of these crimes aren’t you? He was not a 13 year old boy having “informal consent” sexual penetrative intercourse with a 13 year old girl. No, he was a 40+ year old man committing statutory rape on a 13 year old girl, consent does not come into it, formal or “informal”. If you think all the US 13 year olds you mention are losing their virginity to 40+ year old man, then you need help. You are defending and making excuses for a paedophile, let that sink in. You may think you are being clever with your words, but most normal people will find them quite disturbing.
Good. Horrible man.
He is a dirtbag.
Jesus Barny.. give it a rest.
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