Marriage Equality Referendum

[Avenger]

As its the week of the referendum...

Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex.

How do you think you'll be voting?

[blockhead]

Yes.
Every individual should have the same rights as every other individual.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I honestly can't fathom why anyone would vote no. Ignoring the surrogacy and adoption red herrings, even if you're a devout catholic I don't actually see how you could think that a yes result would impact negatively on you or your beliefs. Fair play to the priests who are coming out and saying something similar, can't be easy for them.

[TerenureJim]

You're not giving enough options above. As with all plebiscites I'm guessing about 30%+ of registered voters (never mind the general voting age population) who are most likely to either make a conscious decision to abstain as they've actively no interest (anecdotally I've heard chatter about people getting sick of celebs telling them how to vote and are getting tired of both sides shouting at each other) or those people who just aren't bothered to vote ever.

[offshorerules]

I always vote whenever I can but I am seriously tempted not to on this occasion. If I do vote I will vote yes but I am sick to death of political debates getting polarised in this country and in this campaign the Yes vote has been as guilty as the No's in my opinion.

[Avenger]

I decided on purpose to only put in the two options as that's all you'll have on the day.

[TerenureJim]

I decided on purpose to only put in the two options as that's all you'll have on the day.

Abstaining is a valid choice and you do have that available on the day.

[Xanthippe]

I decided on purpose to only put in the two options as that's all you'll have on the day.

Abstaining is a valid choice and you do have that available on the day.

But isn't abstaining effectively the same as voting No?

[Avenger]

I decided on purpose to only put in the two options as that's all you'll have on the day.

Abstaining is a valid choice and you do have that available on the day.

But isn't abstaining exactly the same as voting No?

No its not as if you vote no, your vote counts (you've had your say) but if you abstain you don't get counted.

[fourthirtythree]

So Avenger's options are valid. If you abstain here your opinion won't contribute to the poll results either.

[paddyor]

Never thought if it that way but I suppose if the referendum is for change then yeah abstaining is kind of a no whether it's meant that way or not.

[TerenureJim]

Never thought if it that way but I suppose if the referendum is for change then yeah abstaining is kind of a no whether it's meant that way or not.

Not necessarily as if you abstain from a referendum and the turnout is significantly low then it could lead to a re-run or adjustment to the question being asked. It can be in certain cases that people are generally for change but find that a question/amendment proposed is poorly worded and potentially open to legal challenge. You could say that it's not the right question so you wouldn't be voting no by abstaining you'd more or less be asking the political class to provide you with a better question, better debate and better constructed legislation to flow from any amendment.

*ps I'm not arguing this in this instance more just general discourse around referendums.

[RoboProp]

Voting yes, although I can't wait for this all to be over

[RoboProp]

Voting yes, although I can't wait for this all to be over

[mfjoc]

Voting yes, although I can't wait for this all to be over

Voting yes, although I can't wait for this all to be over

You're not by any chance Charlie Haughey's election agent?

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I always vote whenever I can but I am seriously tempted not to on this occasion. If I do vote I will vote yes but I am sick to death of political debates getting polarised in this country and in this campaign the Yes vote has been as guilty as the No's in my opinion.

I agree entirely with the sentiment but does it apply here? I despise the fact that if Party X proposes a change then Party Y will automatically shoot them down just to score political points, but in this case all the parties are aligned and I haven't seen any of that kind of attempted point scoring from the yes side. The vast majority of stuff from the yes side has been about promoting equality/love and arguing against the red herrings from the no side. I don't think they've come up with anything too outlandish for selfish political reasons. The no side are a little different in that their arguments are quite extreme, but I will say that that is borne out of deeply held beliefs rather than just point scoring or self promotion.

I really would encourage people to vote because the result will have a massive impact on people's lives and how society progresses, and that is a really powerful thing.

P.s apologies for saying "point scoring" far too often.

[RoboProp]

Voting yes, although I can't wait for this all to be over

Voting yes, although I can't wait for this all to be over

You're not by any chance Charlie Haughey's election agent?

Ssssh don't be telling anyone

[Avenger]

Never thought if it that way but I suppose if the referendum is for change then yeah abstaining is kind of a no whether it's meant that way or not.

Not necessarily as if you abstain from a referendum and the turnout is significantly low then it could lead to a re-run or adjustment to the question being asked. It can be in certain cases that people are generally for change but find that a question/amendment proposed is poorly worded and potentially open to legal challenge. You could say that it's not the right question so you wouldn't be voting no by abstaining you'd more or less be asking the political class to provide you with a better question, better debate and better constructed legislation to flow from any amendment.

*ps I'm not arguing this in this instance more just general discourse around referendums.

Thats fair enough. I'll add an option to abstain.

Edit - and apparently that means all previous votes have been lost

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Well done Avenger, you've single handedly quashed the no voters!

[Avenger]

Well done Avenger, you've single handedly quashed the no voters!

And the yes vote... but we can all vote again.

Vote early, vote often... that's my ethos