James Galvin

The one stop shop for Irish politics on the web has just been relaunched . How it works: just install this plugin on your Wordpress site and it will automatically link every time you mention an irish politician. I like the way it brings together so many different perspectives. Politics in Ireland posts whatever the bloggers are saying, so any apparent bias stems from the consensus of the blogosphere.

I had heard bits and pieces about somebody selling a vote for the Irish senate on eBay, and was surprised to see the coverage that it got in the Irish Times today.

Dan was disgusted:

I recognise that for a great portion of people the Seanad and all who sail in it are something of a joke, but the right to vote is a pretty basic idea that I would expect every citizen to have some respect for. I’m genuinely disgusted.

And I agree with him about the right to vote being a pretty basic idea. That is why I am disgusted by the fact that people actually believe this election should be taking seriously - a system that doesn’t allow your average working man to vote, but instead gives a voice to this guy:

All those of you who went to an Institute of Technology for four years, how does it feel to be inferior to him?

As Dan points out, every citizen, especially second class citizens, should respect this man’s right to vote. But seriously forks, I say fair play to dermotthegreat, protest votes making a mockery of this system are exactly whats needed here. But then again, the fact that nobody was even willing to fork out €1.62 for the privilege implies that perhaps the system is already a bit of a joke.

Head over to Irish Election for the latest updates as the votes are being tallied up. The site has really come into its own now, enhanced by technologies like twitter and mySay (allows you to phone up and leave a voicemail which will instantly be available on the web) which are made for times like this. Here are instructions on how to contribute.

Somebody called Stephen gave an update on Cork North Central about an hour ago, which you can listen to online here.

One of the best ways to hinder a cause is to promote it badly. I’ve just cringed through a bunch of videos on Blogorrah here and here urging young people to Rock the Vote. The idea is fair enough, and an initiative like Rock the Vote is an essential weapon in the war against apathy. However, these “celebrity” videos are so far off the mark that it hurts. I was planning on voting in this election, but after seeing none other than LOUIS WALSH encouraging me to do so, I have changed my mind.

The reaction around the place has been negative, to put it mildly.

Twenty Major

“Shove the vote up your hole”

Jim Carroll:

“Are young voters so dumb that they need sideburned singer-songwriters, lead singers of flop Dublin bands and devilish pop managers to remind them to vote?”

Adam:

The PR people that came up with this shite should be shot (along with most of the rest of them)”

Paul Campbell:

It’s a bit cringe-y

Maman Poulet:

Ryan Tubridy Rocking the Vote? I rest my case!

In fact, the only positive response I came across was Christine Bohan’s scintillating praise, declaring that the campaign is “kinda funny, gets the message across and it’s not nearly as cringey as you’d imagine.”

Unless I have got the wrong idea entirely about Irish people, the only young people that this will impress are under 13, and thankfully not eligible to vote. There was a lot of money put into this campaign, and I find it worrying, bordering on insulting, that they believe we can be seduced by the likes of Ronan Keating making the rock hand-sign. On the bright side, at least Marty Whelan/Linda Martin/Derek Mooney didn’t make an appearance.

RTE mentions that Bertie is embarrassed by the fact that we, “the laughing stock of europe”, don’t yet use electronic voting, while France get their election results in two hours, electronically. Two hours is very impressive, and that’s also how long the French voters were left queuing. This is before we even consider the usability and security concerns of the French system:

“protesters sued to ban the machines outright a week before the election, noting that some models don’t comply with a dual-key requirement for safety from fraud, and others, such as the iVotronic machines, have new software, but haven’t been re-verified since 2005.”

While our own e-Voting machines gather dust in a very expensive warehouse, the Taoiseach chooses to blame the opposition, accusing them of “playing politics”. Am I to assume that Bertie knows more than the Commission on Electronic Voting, who explicitly stated that our system is not ready?

• The security of the hardened PC that is proposed for use in preparing elections and in aggregating and counting the votes afterwards is inadequate and needs to be improved.
• Improvements are also required to the security of the methods by which sensitive election data, including votes, are stored, transported and accessed on ballot modules and CDs.

Bertie is happy to pile on regardless and deploy an insecure voting system, simply because his buddies abroad are doing it. Perhaps if he were less concerned in keeping up appearences, and more interested in the integrity of our elections, then he would acknowledge that the millions wasted on our unused voting system can only be blamed on the government who forked out on a product that does not work.