Election Posters - Time to be scrapped

MementoMori

So once again the election posters have gone up and I have to ask, is it not time the use if election posters was completely banned outright.

Personally I have doubts as to their effectiveness - and I would hope that they have little to no impact on who actually gets elected. Maybe I'm wrong but I just can't see them having any significant impact on who is elected. Also if they do actually have an impact on who gets elected, surely this has to be considered a bad thing and we would be better off removing them so that this didn't happen?

I'd imagine in most cases candidates feel that they have to posters as all the other candidates do.

Is there anyone who feels that the whole sticking up posters thing actually adds anything positive to the whole electoral process? If so I love to hear it the reasons.

As it stands I think the only people who get anything positive out of the election posters thing is the printers who make some money out of it.

Arguably it might raise awareness for some people that there is an election going on but I think you'd have to pretty out-of-the-loop in this day and age to only find out about the election by noticing the posters.

Joey the lips

I wont bore you cause I am sure your not to interested:D but there was a study into postering done. The purpose Most pepople vote by party and the purpose of the poster is to show party presence in an area. Believe it or not a poster is like a magazine the glossier the better and finally a lot of the population cant read. The traveling community are brought to an election poster by there elder and told see that person there, vote for them.

So I am afraid posters will be around for a long, long time to come.

walrusgumble

is there really a need to have a poster of the same candidate on every single lamp post on a particular street, some with eve two posters on the same post?

mikemac

I think read about some candidate in Leitrim that had more posters then votes.

Joey the lips

mikemac wrote: »

I think read about some candidate in Leitrim that had more posters then votes.

That would be michael McDowell

The Raven.

walrusgumble wrote: »

is there really a need to have a poster of the same candidate on every single lamp post on a particular street, some with eve two posters on the same post?

I have already commented on this on the other thread:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=60170059#post60170059

The last time I looked was yesterday, and Fianna Fail were putting THREE posters on EVERY lamppost in one street. This is sheer lunacy :eek::eek::eek:!!!

MementoMori

Joey the lips wrote: »

I wont bore you cause I am sure your not to interested:D but there was a study into postering done. The purpose Most pepople vote by party and the purpose of the poster is to show party presence in an area. Believe it or not a poster is like a magazine the glossier the better and finally a lot of the population cant read. The traveling community are brought to an election poster by there elder and told see that person there, vote for them.

So I am afraid posters will be around for a long, long time to come.

Just wondering if you have any links to the study or even where you came accross it, as I would be very interested to have a proper look at it.
Personally I doubt that posters have much of an effect in terms of affecting how people vote in terms of party preference and would be very interested in some evidence that disproves this.

The point about people who can't read is possibly the most interesting.
However I'm dubious about how much use an election poster is to a person of limited literacy ability and how much these people would be adversely affected if election posters were banned. Could the same purpose not be served by a candidate's election literature such as leaflets etc.?

I do know that one of the candidates in the local elections in Killarney where I'll be voting has made a statement saying that he won't be putting up any election posters given the importance of scenery for tourists visiting Killarney and the negative visual impact they have. Personally I think this is a positive development and would be hopeful that other candidates would also do this.

moore

I agree posters are unsightly and wasteful. Websites and web forums are the way forward for elections. Two years ago I used micandidate.ie and I will be using it for the upcoming elections too. I feel informed and no forests were felled for my vote!

Permabear

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jusk

donegalfella wrote: »

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I've never seen many of them around here. . .

But seriously, I think the amount of posters is overkill -there are far too many, they half-block footpaths, they have sharpe corners that stick in tall people's eyes, and they generally look a mess. Their only practial use if for young scallys to practice drawing 'taches on them.

Each DED should have a couple of large, prominant billboards with all the candidates for that area's individual posters displayed on it, side by side.

Joey the lips

donegalfella wrote: »

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Well said, travelling community, the poor(they do exist ask SVP!) and of course those who cant read or write, Just ask the election counters about the large no of x's for votes!

lostexpectation

lots of councillor still don't have websites but

look at your man martin hogan, who broke his ankle wrist and foot falling off a ladder when a gust of wind blew him off it, its clearly not safe for election activists to be doing this.

gandalf

Joey the lips wrote: »

I wont bore you cause I am sure your not to interested:D but there was a study into postering done. The purpose Most pepople vote by party and the purpose of the poster is to show party presence in an area. Believe it or not a poster is like a magazine the glossier the better and finally a lot of the population cant read. The traveling community are brought to an election poster by there elder and told see that person there, vote for them.

So I am afraid posters will be around for a long, long time to come.

I too would love to see the details of this study you are referring to? Can you provide links or references to this information that seems to have made a big impression on you?

Personally I agree with a lot of others here, it is time to ban posters. They have been thrown up everywhere and often in places where they cause obstruction to motorists views or to cyclists on cycle lanes where most have been put up at a cyclists head height.

KarlNedCarew

walrusgumble wrote: »

some with eve two posters on the same post?

What i find infuriating about these double posters is that sometimes they have their name etc written on the back but still put up a poster to be seen from the other way.
Why bother spending money to print on the back only to cover it up