So, we've the popular President elected by Fake News, the Businessman scuppered by Fake News the last time, the blood-slick candidate from the Party that did the scuppering, a quiet, reserved candidate who runs a mental health charity with links to the love-boaters, another businessman who just sort of in it for the craic, and a fellow who congratulated the jews on living in the White House while suggesting Ireland needed it's own navy seals.
It's pretty much a foregone conclusion unless it turns out Micheal D secretely ran a teenage brothel out of the Aras Anyway, the engine of the State's Democracy has kicked into gear. And it's something we do really fucking well.
The register of electors is the exact same as the register of jurors. You may vote - but you're also required to be available to serve on a Jury for the court as a consequence.
There's a campaign in the runup to check you're on the register of electors. Doing so is as easy as going to a website. Or going to a council office or library.
Registering is easy. It's one line on a form asking you where you live and what your citizenship is. It doesn't really give a bollocks about proving it - it just warns you it's a crime to lie.That's the form there
A few weeks before the vote, the polling cards are sent out to the addresses on the register. They tell you where your polling station is, what desk to vote at and what you're allowed to vote for.
If there's a referendum to change the constitution (Or permit the State to sign a treaty) then a booklet detailing the issues and consqequences of either vote will be issued - showing exactly what's being voted for.
The theatre of democracy plays itself across television, on posters and on the internet. Most of it gets ignored until the big day arrives.
Polling stations themselves are set up in schools. Most of them are relatively easy to get to for just about anyone. Primary schools are the most common. It's almost impossible not to be in walking distance of a polling station.
There's never any queuing involved because there's so many of them. The polls also run from around 7am to 10pm - giving just about anyone in the State a chance to cast their vote.
When you go to the station, you will find one police officer to keep an eye on things - possibly monitors from different campaigns - a big sign on the wall in official print detailing the regulations for elections, and a couple of dozen desks with numbers taped to them - and with address ranges on them.
Go to the desk that matches the number on your polling card or home address - they cross your name off the register - and give you a paper ballot that is perforated to validate it.
Voter ID is a requirement - but it's basically impossible not to have on of the near dozen forms of ID unless you're a complete hermit. And even then.....
You go to the booth, and make your various marks according to your preference. Either Yes, or No for a referendum, or ranking the candidates according to your preference. 1, 2, 3, 4 - or blank if you never want that person in an office.
You may post a blank ballot with no mark. So long as it's perforated - it still counts as a valid ballot. It's a None of The Above. It counts to the quota of votes that must be reached, but doesn't assist anyone in reaching that quota. If you make any mark that doesn't indicate a preference - your vote is spoiled and is tallied separately.
There;s no fucking around with defective voting machines half-stamping ballots and the like.
The ballot is folded, then added to a locked box with the rest. That's what the cop is there for - to make sure nobody tampers with them. They used to be a solid black box. Now plastic ones are used.
Counting happens by human beings in full view of the media and whatever campaigns are ongoing. Every single vote exists on paper so there's no worrying about hacking or the machines getting corrupted. There's the physical vote right there.
There are multiple different counts. Often because there're multiple different seats in the constituency. So all the numbered preferences need to be accounted for. If you can't have the person you wanted as a candidate, who would you accept as next in line?
It's a system that makes gerrymandering or otherwise fucking with the process really fucking hard. Not to mention that a separate apolotical board draws up constituency lines.
All this means is that, when the final result is called out - the only disputing ever occurs in really tight places where the margins come down to single digits on the final count for the last few seats and it's generally considered a good idea to make sure nobody counted wrong.
There is a reason the Love Both campaign was laughed at for screaming about voter suppression, 'registered' people being turned away and other election fackery that might fly within the States but is almost impossible here.
The challenge to the referendum was laughed out of the Supreme Court. To the point where one is forced to wonder if the whole point of the challenge wasn't just to trick some more money out of conservative yanks who funded the whole Love Both clusterfuck in the first place by providing them familiar fodder.
So whatever the result is on the 26th - it won't be in any sort of doubt.
It's pretty much a foregone conclusion unless it turns out Micheal D secretely ran a teenage brothel out of the Aras Anyway, the engine of the State's Democracy has kicked into gear. And it's something we do really fucking well.
The register of electors is the exact same as the register of jurors. You may vote - but you're also required to be available to serve on a Jury for the court as a consequence.
There's a campaign in the runup to check you're on the register of electors. Doing so is as easy as going to a website. Or going to a council office or library.
Registering is easy. It's one line on a form asking you where you live and what your citizenship is. It doesn't really give a bollocks about proving it - it just warns you it's a crime to lie.That's the form there
A few weeks before the vote, the polling cards are sent out to the addresses on the register. They tell you where your polling station is, what desk to vote at and what you're allowed to vote for.
If there's a referendum to change the constitution (Or permit the State to sign a treaty) then a booklet detailing the issues and consqequences of either vote will be issued - showing exactly what's being voted for.
The theatre of democracy plays itself across television, on posters and on the internet. Most of it gets ignored until the big day arrives.
Polling stations themselves are set up in schools. Most of them are relatively easy to get to for just about anyone. Primary schools are the most common. It's almost impossible not to be in walking distance of a polling station.
There's never any queuing involved because there's so many of them. The polls also run from around 7am to 10pm - giving just about anyone in the State a chance to cast their vote.
When you go to the station, you will find one police officer to keep an eye on things - possibly monitors from different campaigns - a big sign on the wall in official print detailing the regulations for elections, and a couple of dozen desks with numbers taped to them - and with address ranges on them.
Go to the desk that matches the number on your polling card or home address - they cross your name off the register - and give you a paper ballot that is perforated to validate it.
Voter ID is a requirement - but it's basically impossible not to have on of the near dozen forms of ID unless you're a complete hermit. And even then.....
You go to the booth, and make your various marks according to your preference. Either Yes, or No for a referendum, or ranking the candidates according to your preference. 1, 2, 3, 4 - or blank if you never want that person in an office.
You may post a blank ballot with no mark. So long as it's perforated - it still counts as a valid ballot. It's a None of The Above. It counts to the quota of votes that must be reached, but doesn't assist anyone in reaching that quota. If you make any mark that doesn't indicate a preference - your vote is spoiled and is tallied separately.
There;s no fucking around with defective voting machines half-stamping ballots and the like.
The ballot is folded, then added to a locked box with the rest. That's what the cop is there for - to make sure nobody tampers with them. They used to be a solid black box. Now plastic ones are used.
Counting happens by human beings in full view of the media and whatever campaigns are ongoing. Every single vote exists on paper so there's no worrying about hacking or the machines getting corrupted. There's the physical vote right there.
There are multiple different counts. Often because there're multiple different seats in the constituency. So all the numbered preferences need to be accounted for. If you can't have the person you wanted as a candidate, who would you accept as next in line?
It's a system that makes gerrymandering or otherwise fucking with the process really fucking hard. Not to mention that a separate apolotical board draws up constituency lines.
All this means is that, when the final result is called out - the only disputing ever occurs in really tight places where the margins come down to single digits on the final count for the last few seats and it's generally considered a good idea to make sure nobody counted wrong.
There is a reason the Love Both campaign was laughed at for screaming about voter suppression, 'registered' people being turned away and other election fackery that might fly within the States but is almost impossible here.
The challenge to the referendum was laughed out of the Supreme Court. To the point where one is forced to wonder if the whole point of the challenge wasn't just to trick some more money out of conservative yanks who funded the whole Love Both clusterfuck in the first place by providing them familiar fodder.
So whatever the result is on the 26th - it won't be in any sort of doubt.
I love the smell of rotaries in the morning. You know one time, I got to work early, before the rush hour. I walked through the empty carpark, I didn't see one bloody Prius or Golf. And that smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole carpark, smelled like.... ....speed.
One day they're going to ban them.