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IT WAS A move that backfired on the Government as turnout for the Children’s Referendum stagnated at a paltry 33 per cent but Saturday voting has not been ruled out entirely.
There is a mixed reaction from politicians with Joan Burton “not personally” convinced that it would work without an “enormous campaign”, while others such as Fine Gael’s Alan Farrell and Leo Varadkar believe it should be given another shot.
Other factors may have come into play to explain Saturday’s low numbers, including a lack of engagement by the electorate on the issue. Last year, the holding of the presidential election and other key referenda on a weekday was widely criticised.
What do you think? Is Saturday voting a good idea?
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Saturday voting is ideal for students who live out and people who live way for work!
I thought it would work well too but now I think Friday voting would work best as people who might be heading away Friday pm after work can vote in the morning and students can commute home after college and vote late Friday night
I don’t understand why they can’t just set up a polling station at each of the colleges as well as primary schools. They have so many empty rooms and facilities. Wouldn’t disrupt anything and students coup vote midweek
Voting on the weekend should always be the case. The low turn out was probably due to the low level of debate and interaction with the public on the referendum itself. I’d imagine the Supreme Court judgement probably didn’t help for those who were undecided either and so they decided to stay away.
I imagine the low turn out is a direct result of the inherent laziness of a lot of people.
A very practical idea is to have a vote on the day most people are not working but a pity it was not enacted when massively important referenda were being put to the people like Nice,Lisbon 1 and 2 and Fiscal compact but the government knew well in every instance what it was doing…..students and young voters (who overwhelmingly vote against government policies) are either away from their constituency or working a part time job on Saturdays!I feel the main reason for a low voter turn out is that people just dont feel they have any say whatsoever and voting has shown that what you vote for (Fine Gael political promises) you simply dont get!!This last referendum was a smoke screen that took at least 2 months thought off the upcoming budget which is going to crucify families and children, supposedly the ones the government want to protect….they are full of sh*te…
Yes great idea the main reason for low turnout in my opinion is lack of a no campaign and also the referendum was not affecting people jobs or money. I think turnout would have been lower if it was mid week. If we want more people voting we need to make it easier like online etc. No need for visiting polling station.
I’m surprised it was a bad turn out it suited me great not having to juggle it with work
Dont forget the complete distrust for the government as a reason for the low turnout!!!
how could someone not vote for something so important just because they mistrust the government,
I’m shocked to be honest I have no time for fg or there politics but I made sure I voted or do people think referendums are a waste of time and should be left at the discretion of the government
I think it should be two days of voting.
So people can choose whether they won’t vote on a saturday or a sunday?
By itself, no. Working week voting suits my house better as we can vote on the way to work. As it happened, we were away this weekend and didn’t vote.
If we had Friday and Saturday voting that would make most sense from a ‘get as many people to vote as possible’ point of view. Obviously it would be more expensive but worth it, imo.
Bob, I really don’t understand why you’ve got a load of red thumbs for a perfectly reasonable opinion. I despair of the commenters on this site sometimes.
I think you were supposed to say something about bailout, rabble rabble, government lies, bondholders, rabble rabble…
Weekend voting = win. This referendum was a bad experiment for it though, there was very little enthusiasm from either the yes or no sides and (from where I’m sitting) a yes or a no would have resulted in very little change.
People away during the week (students/work/etc) are unfairly discriminated against for mid-week voting and, unless we change the rules surrounding postal votes that will make them easily accessible, we should try this again for a proper vote (e.g. the European/Local elections next year).
There is zero chance of FFG/Labour/FF allowing the youth or the people forced to emigrate this country, a vote.
Any polls when analyzed show a much higher proportion of both populations giving first preference votes to anyone other than these 3 parties.
Allowing either groups of disenfranchised people a vote, would be like a turkey voting for x-mas. These cynical self-serving, fat-pensioned traitors will never allow any group of people to vote that could threaten their pay-checks or pensions. Getting state-funded pensions while you are still at working age is a sham, getting the pensions these guys are getting is pure robbery.
Eh it was a referendum not a general election? P.s Saturday voting makes it easier for students to vote as I can attest.
This was about whether it was a good idea to vote on a Saturday or not. It’s nothing to do with FG, Labour or FF or any form of election first preferences. Nor is it to do with pensions.
Conor, i couldn’t agree more. Saturday voting allows the younger generation to vote when returning home at the weekends etc…
In a general election, the establishment parties will not facilitate this common sense approach, as it would have a negative impact on their tallies.
Referendums are OK, as these are not impacting their pay-checks…. Elections are a totally different kettle of fish for these self-serving money grabbers.
Cal, I think you are looking for a conspiracy when there isn’t one……
Sorry for being off topic and picky Cal but who’s this “FFG” that you always refer to? If its Fine Gael you should use the usual “FG” that everyone else uses. It looks like you’re saying “Fianna Fail Gael” when you keep using that “FFG” thing…
Hi Michael. … Genuinely, i do not see one iota of difference between FF and FG, so i just lump them together… Simples.
There should be the opportunity to cast a vote for your electorate from a different electorate. That, or postal voting, would stop so many people being disenfranchised through not being able to travel to the electorate where they are registered.
I’m against voting on Mondays so I’ll sit this one out
They need to introduce some sort of list system, then technically you could vote from any polling station methinks. Students could vote from Dublin or whatever etc. and it would get rid of the James Reilly esque pandering to local constituents that adversely affects the rest of the country.
I would agree with this, but you’d need to be careful in how it’s implemented so that it’s only available to those who are away from home (e.g. students) and not for people who move away from home, but keep their vote there for whatever reason…
I know of a few people who moved out but decided to leave their vote at home, which makes no sense – surely you should only be able to vote for those who represent you… (Obviously for referenda (-dums?) this isn’t an issue).
low turn out prob due to teachers not voting in protest at missing out on “another” day off !!!
Doesn’t matter what day voting is on, there will always be someone saying it doesn’t suit. Christ it takes two minutes to do and you have 14 hrs within which to do it. Cop on, like.
Couldn’t agree more. I don’t see why we make arrangements for people who just aren’t bothered voting. Period.
Everyone wanted a Weekend to give people who are elsewhere during the week a chance to get to the polling station. Are you telling me that only 30% of us were available to vote yesterday, between 9am and 10pm? 13 hours? Seriously.
Yes.
It stops the already short Irish school year becoming shorter. Literacy and numeracy standards are already poor – students do not need more time off.
Monday, wed, Fri or saturdays -the result this time would have been the same.
In General and in terms of a greater turn out -Saturday would be better
I couldn’t convince some friends to vote as they head of on Saturdays on family business!
There’s rarely a good excuse not to vote if you actually want to, polling stations are open from 9am – 10pm, plenty of time to get your sh1t together.
Voting should be done over two days, for two reasons.
1. People will be less likely to miss voting due to the multitude of reasons that they do.
2. People will be able to react if overnight exit polls indicate a result they won’t like.
Anyway, just an idea.
Good idea, I pity all the poor teachers who did not get the day off, last Saturday …..
need to move with the times and have online voting.
I think it’s imperative on all citizens of this country to get out and vote. How are we supposed to achieve a bailout for the working man if we don’t???
The voting “wife” has become tired of their lying,cheating and abusive political “husband”. The low turnout reflects a depressive disinterest of a catatonic abuse victim beaten down beyond the point of caring. The fact that this morning the political spin is already trying to sell us the usual misdirection that the low turnout was because voters were confused or rejected the day chosen for polling, just adds further insult to the continuing injury forced on Irish people by their self serving political classes.
I know people who voted in this Referendum who never voted in one before, and on the flipside others who didn’t vote who never missed a vote before. You can’t please all of the people all of the time. I think the low turnout was to do with many reasons, but the most common and most pathetic was the dislike and mistrust of this government, that is no reason to miss such an important vote.
How about we just vote online? I can transfer thousands of euro in safety online. I don’t see why the same security systems couldn’t be employed in voting.
Still need the stations open though.
Why weren’t the polling stations open at the usual hour of 7am?
Because it was a weekend and most people dont work. Very few people voted early Saturday morning.
Opening later also saved the taxpayer over €600000
Because we couldn’t get more than 30% between the hours of 9am and 10pm. Opening for an extra 2 hours would have been a complete waste of time.
I think that having the polling stations open on a Saturday was a brilliant idea. Kids still got a full week of schooling. What is shocking is the low voter turn-out (probably due to voter fatigue/apathy than anything else) for a change to the Constitution. I think for Constitutional Referenda, people who can vote but don’t should be fined. It should be an offence not to use your vote.
But do you want people who most likey haven’t educated themselves on an issue voting simply because they’ll get fined if they don’t?
I think there should be compulsory voting like Australia,Argentina,Luxembourg etc. with a a list of exemptions (under the age, in Hospital, incapacitated etc.) and a either a third option added (abstention) or direct people who don’t want to chose to spoil the vote.
I’m a school teacher and I think having the referendum on a Saturday was a bad idea.
It would be interesting to see if running your poll on a Saturday — as well as today — would give a significant difference — either more people voting — or a measurably different result — at least you’d have a quantified set of results .
Ah but René, this is viewed at your convenience , on your computer or mobile, anytime!
I don’t think anything can be learned by this one referendum. There are many reason probably why people didn’t vote and I doubt the day of the week was a significant factor in this one.
I can see argument boths ways on this. I know when I was working 9-5 I found a weekday vote handy because I could do it before I went to work or on my way home. And yet those who don’t work or are away from home such as students can be disenfranchised by a weekday. Saturday voting goes give people more flexibility and allows people to return home but potentially anybody who decides to go away for a weekend will end up losing their vote.
To be honest I think the problem here is not the day of the week but the fact that we are still so backward in the way our voting system is setup. Sadly because of the previous electronic voting debacle it will be a brave Government who would move forward on this issue. Realistically there should be a method whereby a central database of the voting register exists and people could either vote online or could go to any polling station and still have their vote registered in their own constituency. The easier you make it for people to vote, the more likely they are to do it.
Did not think it was a big issue to warrent a referendum nothing to do with Sat. Far more serious issues need to be addressed by d clowns !!_
have your say