General Election and Government Formation Megathread (see post #1)

Ronan|Raven

leavingirl wrote: »

Doesn't matter who wins. They will bow to their EU masters.

And rightly so.

FrancieBrady

sid waddell wrote: »

Turnout pattern across the day is likely to be a bit different today because it's a Saturday and most people are off work. So less of an after work surge, people can stroll in at whatever time they like. Weather also driving early voting. I wouldn't necessarily say there will be increased turnout. The UK election had breathless reports of record turnout early in the day but it didn't materialise and turnout ended up being down on 2017. Also with Winter elections people probably prefer to vote in daylight hours if they can, whereas in June there's no problem strolling down to the polling booth at 9:30pm, it's still daylight.

Yes. Caution is advised with the weather and social media.

Sir Oxman

droidus wrote: »

Busy enough in Finglas. I reckon it will be above average turnout today, and it feels like there's something in the air. We may be in for a few shocks later this evening.

That'll be the storm, very high winds and rain hitting Dublin anyway!

votecounts

Rain pelting down here in the Laois/Carlow border area, not surprised turnout is high.

WM18

Chips Lovell wrote: »

What are you alleging they did exactly? I don't read the Indo regularly but I would read the Irish Times every day.

THIS IS WHAT THEY DID

My letter cancelling my IrishTimes subscription.

A chara,

Please remove my card details from this Irish Times subscription as I wish to cancel at the end of the current prepaid term, I.e.2 March 2020. I have been a loyal supporter of this paper since a student in Dublin in the late eighties and always bought a few a week in my local shop.

I did not want to miss anything important in the current election so subscribed online. My reasons for cancelling now are linked to the sudden change of tone and articles in your paper as soon as Sinn Féin got ahead in the Irish election. I am particularly disappointed at your lack of impartiality following the staged assault of RTÉ, our national broadcaster paid by the taxpayer, on Mary Lou Mc Donald, aspiring first Irish woman Taoiseach, by digging up a 13 year old quote of a minister in another jurisdiction.You failed to report that RTÉ did not question Micheál Martin about Fianna Fáil’s position on the Quinn shooting as stated by Bertie Ahearn, then Taoiseach, who had blatantly mentioned criminality and two rival gangs involvement as reported to him by the Garda and PSNI. Finally The Irish Times failed to advise readers that Simon Coveney’s brother is Head of Strategy at RTÉ, no coincidence, given the shambolic reluctance to even allow Mary Lou appear on television!

I will never trust the reporting of this paper again so will not need this subscription. I will be posting this widely forever.

Le dea-mhéin,

Sierra Oscar

tuxy wrote: »

Alan Kelly was walking into the polling station as I was walking out.
It's not his local station so he was not voting.
Up to no good.

Candidates and their electoral agents are legally entitled to visit any polling station in their constituency and request information regarding turnout and so on. All candidates do it, you’d be a fool not to check for any inconsistencies and so on. Of course it also helps to be seen!

L1011

namloc1980 wrote: »

What's going on here then??

https://www.thejournal.ie/joe-loughnane-suspended-from-pbp-4998335-Feb2020/

He's nuked his entire twitter also.

An Ciarraioch

Usually with exit polls, the percentages for each party would allow you to guess an approximate range of seats, but presumably the volatility of SF throws such matters up in the air?

loyatemu

got out an voted this morning, so I could watch the rugby later and avoid the worst of the weather. Went 6 places down the list of 19(!) for Wicklow. Who are all these wacky no-hoper independents who want to throw their deposits away? Polling seemed fairly brisk at our polling station.

Anyway, even though a FF-led govt seems inevitable I'd like to see it tempered with a strong soft-left showing. People clearly want change, but I haven't much seen evidence that FF and Micháel Martin are the change they want.

Imreoir2

An Ciarraioch wrote: »

Usually with exit polls, the percentages for each party would allow you to guess an approximate range of seats, but presumably the volatility of SF throws such matters up in the air?

Will there be a local break down of the numbers in the exit poll or just national figures? If its just national figures then it will be hard to predict the seat numbers, though it will give some indication.

Jizique

droidus wrote: »

Busy enough in Finglas. I reckon it will be above average turnout today, and it feels like there's something in the air. We may be in for a few shocks later this evening.

The natives will likely be shocked that they still live in Finglas

ddarcy

Just voted in Sligo. It was after the rugby match, but the boxes are full. I’ve never seen that. And queues were forming after the match.

Only word of caution is that Sligo is running a lot of candidates, so the ballot paper is longer than normal (I think 18 in total).

But will be interesting to see if a high turnout is bad for FG our not.

Mr.Nice Guy

My polling station in Dublin was busier than I'd ever witnessed, and that was around 10am. Had to queue to get my ballot which was a new experience. Weather was lovely though, in contrast to things at the minute.

Sir Oxman

Oh Joe, Joe Loughnane.

Never liked him since I saw that video of him telling a visiting lecturer to GTF out of 'his' university.
He's a permanent student, about 10 years so far.

Hope the woman is ok.

Water John

Wicklow has a bit of history in electing inds. Valerie Cox will poll well.

TheMilkyPirate

Had to queue in Wexford town to get my ballot paper and also to get into a booth. Busy enough, that was at midday.

Inquitus

Aye I went in Swords, Dublin North, before the rugby and I have never seen it soo busy, defo a good idea to hold it on a Sat and give almost everyone every chance to vote.

votecounts

Voting should always be on a Saturday, really intertested to see what overall turnout will be.

Imreoir2

Will be interesting to see of weekend voting becomes more of a usual thing in the future.

Itssoeasy

It's miserable weather now in cork so while it might seemed earlier there would be a huge turnout people probably didn't want to be out in this weather as it's manky.

An Ciarraioch

Turnout seems particularly high in Dublin constituencies.

Water John

That would favour SF and Greens IWT.

amacca

Would there be any official reports/stats on turnout available yet.....or is that a stupid question?

Imreoir2

amacca wrote: »

Would there be any official reports/stats on turnout available yet.....or is that a stupid question?

RTÉ has some reports from earlier.

FrancieBrady

amacca wrote: »

Would there be any official reports/stats on turnout available yet.....or is that a stupid question?

Not allowed from any official source.

froog

why don't RTE do all nighter election results shows? a 40 minute update is all we get. lazy feckers.

Imreoir2

froog wrote: »

why don't RTE do all nighter election results shows? a 40 minute update is all we get. lazy feckers.

What are they supposed to talk about? All we get is an exit poll tonight. Once they talk about that, are they supposed to just livestream the ballot boxes sitting in the count centres before counting starts in the morning?

storker

amacca wrote: »

Would there be any official reports/stats on turnout available yet.....or is that a stupid question?

Not an official turnout figure, but our polling station in Wicklow told us that turnout so far was an unusually high 64%. This was at 1830.

storker

ddarcy wrote: »

Only word of caution is that Sligo is running a lot of candidates, so the ballot paper is longer than normal (I think 18 in total.

When we got ours I said to my wife as I looked at the list, "We'll be here all night..."

Hurrache

An Ciarraioch wrote: »

Turnout seems particularly high in Dublin constituencies.

Apparently so, although bear in mind this is where the voting centres are located, not necessarily the turnout in just these estates.

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