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Voting on the Islands

  • 31-10-2011 11:56am
    #1
    Corsendonk
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,871 ✭✭✭


    I know everyone has a right to vote but the structure of some of the Island voting strikes me as ludcrious and a waste of taxpayers money. In one particular RTE report the election official and a garda were flow by the Air Corps to a Donegal Island, two resident brothers voted first and the remaining voters travelled from the mainland to the island to vote. Surely it makes sense for them to vote by post on the smaller population islands or register with the local mainland polling station seening that they often live on the mainland for 6 months of the year.

    RTE News
    Monday, 24 October 2011

    Voters on the islands off the coast of Donegal will vote today in the Presidential election and the two referendums.
    Traditionally the islanders vote ahead of the rest of the electorate to ensure that bad weather does not hinder the return of ballot boxes on time to be counted with the rest of the votes cast in the Donegal south west constituency.
    Today islanders on five Donegal islands will go to the polls - Arranmore, Tory, Gola, Inisfree and Inisboffin.
    A total of 937 people are entitled to vote and the largest electorate of almost 700 are registered on the biggest island, Arranmore. The smallest electorate is on Inishfree where there are just eight voters registered.
    Polling stations will be open from 11am this morning until 3pm this afternoon on each of the islands except Arranmore, where two polling stations will be open from 10:30am until 7:30pm this evening to accommodate people who work on the mainland.



Comments

  • #2
    Sleepy
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,367 ✭✭✭✭Sleepy


    As long as registered citizens are resident on the islands, I don't believe we can refuse them a voting station on the island, we can, however, insist that our officials don't waste money when providing the island residents with their constitutional rights. Why the hell were the air corps required to get the voting officials to the island? Is there no ferry service?


  • #3
    Corsendonk
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,871 ✭✭✭Corsendonk


    Sleepy wrote: »
    As long as registered citizens are resident on the islands, I don't believe we can refuse them a voting station on the island, we can, however, insist that our officials don't waste money when providing the island residents with their constitutional rights. Why the hell were the air corps required to get the voting officials to the island? Is there no ferry service?

    Ironically voters on Lambay Island who live there all year have to travel to Rush to vote.


  • #4
    lucozader
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 588 ✭✭✭lucozader


    I hear the islanders are furious, they voted before the frontline debate. Many of them voted for Gallagher and only realized their awful mistake after the debate.


  • #5
    smcgiff
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,943 ✭✭✭smcgiff


    lucozader wrote: »
    I hear the islanders are furious, they voted before the frontline debate. Many of them voted for Gallagher and only realized their awful mistake after the debate.

    Well, let them wait until the news that it was an ambush with no substance filters through and they can be smugly happy they got it right.


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