Did anyone fly #HomeToVote no on Ireland's same-sex marriage referendum?
LatestLots of Irish expats have returned home to vote yes on the county’s same-sex marriage referendum, many of them tweeting about the trip using the hashtag #HomeToVote. But did anyone fly back to vote no?
Throughout much of Friday’s vote, the top-trending hashtag was flooded with images of crowded airports, boats, and train cars packed with Irish emigrants traveling from Kenya, Germany, Thailand, and Canada in the hopes of expanding the rights of same-sex couples in their home country.
Noticeably absent from the hashtagged tweets were the people who flew #HomeToVote no on the same-sex referendum. I was only able to track down a few tweets in the stream of thousands that fit the bill, including one man who cut his Eurovision-themed trip to Vienna short (!) in order to cast his ballot.
The point is that if a lot of expats flew #HomeToVote no, they’re definitely not trying to advertise it on social media. Or they’re just not on Twitter, as unbelievable as that thought might be.
An estimated 60,000 Irish citizens living abroad are potentially eligible to vote in Friday’s referenda, which also include a measure that would lower the minimum age for presidential candidates from 35 to 21. The only catch is that those voters would have to cast their ballot in person, as Ireland does not allow postal voting.
Same-sex marriage is legal in almost 20 countries worldwide. A yes vote on Friday would make Ireland the first nation to ever legalize same-sex marriage by national popular vote.
Bad at filling out bios seeks same.