Terry @ 57 and Lee @ 73,
I was a bit unclear there. I'm a transplanted Californian in Ireland, and it was the most recent Irish census I was talking about. I was a student in California during the 2000 census, and I have no complaints about how that was run.
Census taking absolutely should not be linked to voter registration, but when the census conveniently ignores the existence of sizable amounts of people in rented accommodation and that rented accommodation never sees the voter registration cards that got posted to private estates and don't seem to be available anywhere else?
It's not that census information is used to cull certain people from the list of people who are allowed to vote. It's that from what I saw, the most recent Irish census didn't actually record the people who were there, and those sections of people who weren't recorded as existing in the area didn't get registration cards sent to them in the recent updating of voter registration (which was also meant to help cull large swaths of dead people, some of whom were still voting, from the lists of registered voters).
Andrew #2
It's not just the USA. From my observance as a foreigner, Irish elections seem to always be held in term time on weekdays and there is no absentee ballot, so many students would have to skip at least a full day of classes to travel home to vote. Also, there is no set election day, so the party in power may set elections when they feel it will be most beneficial to them.
There's also a bit of a problem with getting registered, census taking (which is linked to voter registration), and getting the names of dead people off the list of voters. I was here for the most recent census, and never got noted as present in the state, despite calling up the central office several times to complain that the forms had never arrived to my rented accommodation. This was not a rare occurrence. Also, despite having sent in a registration card over two years ago (I should be eligible to vote in local elections), I've never received any information on elections.
Ah well. I'm currently waiting for my heavy California voters' information packet to arrive. It's come regularly ever since I managed to convince the registrar that it shouldn't be going to the UK.
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| 2008 | 3 |
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