Every vote counts. Make sure you use yours.
As the common wisdom would have it, today’s referendums on marriage equality and, to a lesser extent, on the age of presidential candidates will hang as much on the strength of voter turnout as on the overall Yes/No divide.
Polls clearly show that older people, who are more likely to vote, also tend to be more hostile to both propositions. And, some have argued, though perhaps more dubiously this time, that No voters may also be more highly motivated to turn out to defend the status quo than voters who may welcome change but see it as someone else’s problem. The result could be a No vote, defying opinion polls that have consistently suggested a strong national majority in favour of marriage equality – this would mean, in effect, that an abstaining voter votes No.
To date there have been referendums on a total of 36 proposals to amend the Constitution since, and including, its adoption in 1937 – 26 have been approved, and 10 rejected. As a writer to this newspaper paper observed recently, however, of these, 13 referendums, all conducted when other elections were not on, had voter turnouts below 50 per cent, and down as low as 29 per cent in the votes on adoption and Seanad representation in 1979.
Such abysmal turnouts would seem to call into question the legitimacy of such results although we operate our system on the basis of a democratically questionable “consent to be governed” presumption that those who stay at home are making a conscious decision to allow others to make decisions on their behalf. Legitimacy by default. They can’t complain about the result afterwards, although a repeat vote later can allow them to undo it. In 2001 a particularly low turnout of 35 per cent saw the country reject the EU’s Nice Treaty despite polls suggesting it would be carried. Large numbers of those who stayed at home, however, came out a year later – turnout 50 per cent – and reversed the decision decisively.
There is a real irony in the reality that the challenge for those who want to see higher levels of participation lies in persuading the internet generation to come out to vote. This is a generation that probably votes more often than any other in human history – whether it's for the winner of The Voice or the X Factor, or in instant online polls. Participating in a digital ballot comes easy to younger voters, many of whom have never voted in an election that involves walking into a polling booth. An older generation must persuade them that nothing beats the real thing.
And then there is the old, perhaps over-familiar, argument, but nevertheless true – people died, are dying, for this right we take for granted. Voting matters, it makes a difference. You have to do it in person and you can only do it once, but it’s free. It’s easy. Every vote counts.