Rocking the vote
Today’s Blogorrah features a selection of videos from the Rock The Vote campaign. I really hope that someone checked that all those “celebrities” and “stars” featured in these vids are on the relevant voting registers. By the way, are young voters so dumb that they need sideburned singer-songwriters, lead singers of flop Dublin bands and devilish pop managers to remind them to vote?
Then, there are the students. Lets be honest about this: every single election campaign sees students moaning and groaning about the fact that the election is on a Thursday and they can’t vote because they’re away from their homes and their mammies. The truth? Over to Ms Laura Egar from yesterday’s Letters to the Editor page in the paper
Madam, - The students whining about being disenfranchised by the Government’s decision to hold a general election on a Thursday should spend less time whining and more time informing themselves about the democratic election process in this country.
Any student in full-time third-level education has the opportunity to apply to have their vote moved to the constituency in which they are studying or to apply for a postal vote for the constituency in which they live.
Ignorance is bliss, it gives free licence to complain. - Yours, etc,
LAURA EGAR, Shankill, Co Dublin
We’re voting for Laura.
in summary, “bloody students”
Comment by Ronan | May 3, 2007 at 10:06 amronan - more like “lazy students”. they can move their vote (actually, they are probably not entitled to vote at their home constituency if they are not residing there) and this piece of info is relayed time and time again especially in non-election years. but, come election time, out come the USI moaners and worse, the media gives them the time of day. its one of those really boring, irritating stories which keep coming up in every single election campaign and drives me to distraction. if you want to vote, register in the constituency you live in. simple as that.
Comment by Jim Carroll | May 3, 2007 at 10:18 amI think the students have not woken up yet hence the lack of indignant responses to this!
Comment by Sarah | May 3, 2007 at 4:31 pmYou do all realise not all students are completely lazy? A large number of universities this year ran postal voting campaigns whereby they gave out the forms and information for students to avail of postal voting.
Rock the vote was as much and information campaign as it was anything else - postal voting is not something that is every heavily publicised. And given the number of discrepancies that many people have complained about this year with the updated register of electors can you blame anyone for not trying to change constituencies???? Many people I know where removed from the register and had an awful lot of trouble to have there names re - entered.
And students have a right to complain, just like anyone else, research has shown that students are more likely to vote for the opposition.
Comment by Steph | May 3, 2007 at 6:41 pmsteph - of course, i realise that not all students are lazy. after all, as you point out in your comment, campaigns took place in universities and college about postal voting so the information was there
no, my point is more that this story comes up again and again in EVERY election. i saw part of a Prime Time debate on RTE TV last night where this came up as well. As you point out, the info is out there - its laziness more than ignorance which is at fault.
Comment by Jim Carroll | May 4, 2007 at 10:20 amI’ve been keeping up with this from abroad, so forgive me if this is in any way inaccurate. I’m told students can’t move their votes to a constituency unless they are resident there on September 1, for whatever reason. Most if not all colleges haven’t started by then.
Comment by shane | May 4, 2007 at 3:24 pmAlso, the deadline for registering for a postal vote was apparently May 1. I think Bertie called the election on the 29th of April - this left a day for people to get all the relevant forms together, and hand-deliver them. This makes the last sentence of that letter fairly ironic.
I’m hoping I can still get my form posted and signed by my college in time, which seems difficult.
(most of this information comes from the irish election and lex ferenda blogs. And I accept that most students are probably lazy.)
shane - if you go to www.checktheregister.ie, full details of how to get on the election register are there.
if you are not on the register, there is a form to download and return to the relevant constituency register compilation people to get on the supplementary registar.
per this site, “completed forms should be returned directly by you to your city or county council and must reach the relevant council before the fourteenth day (Sundays, public holidays and Good Friday excluded) before polling day in order to be considered for inclusion in the supplement for a forthcoming election or referendum.”
of course, given that irish general elections must be held within five years of the Dail elected the last time around sitting for the first time, it was always going to be a 2007 election so why people left getting on the register until the last minute is beyond me.
at this point, i am beginning to feel as i’m in rock the vote mode. i am now going outside to practise my wacky hand signals.
Comment by Jim Carroll | May 4, 2007 at 3:42 pmthanks jim - i have been on the register since last year. However there is a separate register for postal voters, and the deadline is the day the order for an election is signed.
Comment by shane | May 4, 2007 at 4:09 pmand on students and their postal/location registering i imagine most people didn’t want to go to unnecessary trouble until they knew the election would be on a thursday, which given how damn confusing all this is, i can well understand.
Fair play to Laura - I used my postal vote when I was a student: no need to change constituency.
I live in France, where elections are on a Sunday: I imagine Irish students whining ‘but.. but..this is the day we get the train/bus back up to Dublin after a weekend home getting Mammy to do our laundry!!!!’
As for Rock The Vote, I just don’t think many Irish young people or Irish musicians sincerely care about local politics at all. US foreign policy, now THAT’S what they love!!! (Do you remember that ‘I Am Not At War With You’ song?) In Paris this week there was a huge free concert to support Segolene Royal, the left candidate in Sunday’s presidential election. You can (plug!) read about it on my blog over at CLUAS.com:
http://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Blogs/French_Letter/tabid/80/EntryID/68/Default.aspx
Can you imagine a huge concert rallying support for Inda and Pat Rabbitte? Not at all.
Comment by aidan | May 4, 2007 at 5:50 pmhi aidan - thanks for your comments.
no problems with the plug - we hope to see a similar plug/link from your blog. it is very strange that the Cluas blogs don’t have either a rudimentary Blogroll or carry links to other Irish music links. is there a reason for this isolationist policy?
and speaking of plugs… full Irish Times Election 2007 coverage is at www.ireland.com/focus/election2007/
Comment by Jim Carroll | May 4, 2007 at 6:28 pmJim,
Not isolationism, honestly, just technical problems - there WAS a blogroll and as soon as it’s back up and running I’ll be sure to put you on it, as well as tons of other blogs/links.
As for Shane’s point about not knowing when the election day would be: it was always going to be the case that the election would be in april or may of this year. Anyone up-to-date and interested in politics would have known that. This excludes Irish students, of course…
Comment by aidan | May 5, 2007 at 6:30 pmWell Aidan, as someone up-to-date and interested in politics, I can assure you that even us (student status notwithstanding) didn’t know what day of the week it would be on, which was my whole point, and the point of this whole article. But don’t worry, when I leave uni I probably won’t let details stop me from generalising about irish students either…
Comment by shane | May 5, 2007 at 9:22 pmQuery - if one is registered to postal vote but they happen to be at home when the election day is on, can they still do the postal vote even though it is in their home town?
I’m not sure what the answer(I think no). If I’m right then backs up the problem for students. Due to not knowing what date and day the election would be on, I had to decide whether to register postal vote at home. I decided not to register for postal vote but it was a gamble. If the election was on before my exams finished I would have been left with no vote. I’m aware of the reasons for not being allowed to register for both ways. But it demonstrates the issues that students have. It is simply childish to hear adults (presumably) make references to “lazy children”. Not a good base for an argument.
As an aside, political apathy is prevalent among the adults of our society also.
Comment by Sarah | May 6, 2007 at 11:06 pmI just re read my post and its not very clear. What I mean is that if one is registered as postal voter, and happen to be at home when election day is one, can they go the garda station at home and postal vote there?
And I meant lazy students, not children
Comment by Sarah | May 6, 2007 at 11:09 pm