Should Universities close on Election Day?

Heisenberg.

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talla10

Do students not have a postal vote??Maybe not but i always thought they did...

markpb

Afaik students can use postal votes. Even if they can't, if someone is living away from home for 3-4 years, there's no reason why they shouldn't change their voting address to their actual place of residence. The idea that someone will spend years pretending not to live where they actually live is crazy: voting, census forms, car insurance, etc. There's no reason for the state to support this collective denial by closing universities.

KerranJast

For once, take a day off and travel to vote if you have to.

Ste.phen

Should businesses close on election day?
Some people work far away from where they're registered to vote.

Just move your vote to where you live most of the time, and move it back if you move back, simples!

Lockstep

I'd be more in favour of having elections on weekends. Fairly annoying that they're held on weekdays when people are working/studying.

I was working during the 2009 elections and took a lot of wheeling and dealing with my manager to get the time off to go and vote.

markpb

kickoutthejams wrote: »

I was working during the 2009 elections and took a lot of wheeling and dealing with my manager to get the time off to go and vote.

Eh? Polling stations are open from 7am to 10pm - what kind of job do you do that you didn't have time to vote!?

sceptre

Students can avail of a postal vote if they insist on leaving their vote in their parents' home. That removes the need to drive home or get on a bus or train. Every Students' Union in the country should have been facilitating students who want to avail of one. Where the local SU isn't doing that, people should have the general cop-on to sort it.

Alternatively, they can transfer their vote to where they spend five days or more a week for three or four years.

There's no reason to close the institutions - setting up a postal vote or transferring their vote are both easy options available to students. There's no excuse whatever for anyone in an Irish educational establishment who complains that they "can't" vote or that it's inconvenient for them to vote - it isn't so.

As it happens, I'd be in favour of holding elections at the weekends as they do in continental countries, but as students can avail of postal votes anyway, there's still no reason to close the educational establishments for that.

Lockstep

markpb wrote: »

Eh? Polling stations are open from 7am to 10pm - what kind of job do you do that you didn't have time to vote!?

Working in a hotel bar (thank God I don't have to do that anymore)
It's pretty brutal work (10-12 hour shifts were a pain) and it was on the other side of town, so I had to allow a fair amount of time to get over there on public transport, change into my uniform, clock in, get the bar ready and so on. Ditto for getting back from work.

Trying to fit getting to the polling station into that would have been hellish.

nesf

kickoutthejams wrote: »

Working in a hotel bar.
It's pretty brutal work (10-12 hour shifts were a pain) and it was on the other side of town, so I had to allow a fair amount of time to get over there on public transport, change into my uniform, clock in, get the bar ready and so on.

Trying to fit getting to the polling station into that would have been hellish.

Then you should qualify for a postal vote and should apply for one!

Lockstep

nesf wrote: »

Then you should qualify for a postal vote and should apply for one!

Only took the job fairly soon before the election. Didn't have the notice to get the postal vote.

Bottle_of_Smoke

To be honest taking one day off college to vote is no biggy.

Manach

OP's original point - No. I've paid for an education service and expect to get one during the designated college term.

unknown13

No, they should have Members of An Garda Siochana in the university to allow students to cast their postal votes in the university itself instead of going to a local Garda station.

Bucklesman

Better still, students should be invited to register to vote when they first enter college, and have the option to use the college as their polling place.

unknown13

Bucklesman wrote: »

Better still, students should be invited to register to vote when they first enter college, and have the option to use the college as their polling place.

The UCD Student's Union did that at the Freshers tent this year.

nesf

Bucklesman wrote: »

Better still, students should be invited to register to vote when they first enter college, and have the option to use the college as their polling place.

In UCC when I was there, they went out of their way coming up to elections to make it easier for students to register in the UCC constituency. Information was given out at lectures and all that.

Ray Burkes Pension

Scrap the stupid 26 (one in each county) lists of registered voters. We all know well there are people on multiple lists.

Introduce a full list system. No locals TDs, no parish pump politics in Dáil. Instead we get representatives focused on the business of the Dáil.

Then there is no reason to allow anyone with a voting card to vote in any voting station in the country. No more two day return trips to vote.

maynooth_rules

Why cant elections take place on a Saturday. What is the fascination with having it on a Thursday.

Heisenberg.

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DaithiOSe01

Well if the Election was held on a Saturday or Sunday, I'd be really handy for students to vote en-masse

As regards to closing, I highly doubt it. University's wont care, its just another day to them.

Rebelheart

Scien wrote: »

2011 will be the second GE I'll be eligible to vote in.
I couldn't vote in 2007 because of college commitments and the distance I would have had to travel to my constituency.

Considering the discouraging amount of votes for FF in the Donegal SW by-election, one can only draw the conclusion that it is the older generation who continue to stick by this Govt. in light of their repeated failures.

If we can't make voting compulsory, should third level institutions close on polling day to encourage the younger vote?

You should pm the mods and ask them to put a poll with this. I think they should close for the day.

sceptre

Scien wrote: »

I don't have any solid facts on this but the general consensus is that politicians want to dissuade the younger vote which is seen to be traditionally left.

Personally I think that's something of a myth that's grown around the fact that they've often been held on a Thursday. As postal votes are available to students, they're well-able to vote in their parents' constituency/what they still regard as their home constituency if they like. Additionally there are plenty of "young people" (I'm putting it in quotes as what young people are can depend on how old you are:)) who aren't in full-time education of any sort and hence are still able to vote in the normal way without resorting to travelling or using the convenient postal vote and historically this proportion was even higher, with elections still being held mid-week.

A Thursday vote gives the advantage to the politicians themselves that it hands them a few convenient days off after campaigning before the start of the week, time for ministers to be appointed over the weekend when they're conveniently at home and contactable, as well as a few days to negotiate a coalition if they need to and if they're efficient about it. It doesn't always work like that, obviously. And it isn't necessarily the best way. But it's as good an explanation of why elections are held on the day they are as a conspiratorial theory about denying suffrage to the youngsters, all of whom have the ability to sort out their own vote if they so wish.

It's also not irrelevant to point out that the voting age was reduced from 21 to 18 under forty years ago, just after the time when many students were getting more radical and inclined to vote for the non-establishment. If the elections were being held on a Thursday to deny these people the vote, it would have been simpler to actually deny a sizeable chunk of them the vote by leaving the voting age at 21.

mickstupp

If not a Saturday or Sunday, I don't see why voting on a Friday is a problem for any student. Granted, I commute to college anyway, but even for those who only go home at weekends, polling is open late enough so that almost all students should be able to get there. And for those who don't... re-register or use postal votes. I agree with the notion that the colleges could be used as a polling place. I definitely don't agree that they should close on election day, I think that's completely unnecessary.

Brenireland

Sorry But NO