Yes, it is a word. No, that does not settle anything
"Irregardless" is a word: it is in Merriam-Webster and other major dictionaries, and it has been in use for more than two centuries. But those same dictionaries label it nonstandard, and usage guides almost unanimously advise against it in formal writing. So the honest answer is "yes, but" — and the "but" is where the fight lives.
This vote is not asking whether the word exists. It asks whether you accept it: whether you would say it, and whether you would let it pass in someone else's mouth.
Where it came from
The most common explanation is that irregardless is a blend of two words that mean the same thing: irrespective and regardless. A speaker reaching for one grabs a piece of the other, and the result sticks. Merriam-Webster notes that the word appears in print by the late eighteenth century, but that it only became widespread in the early twentieth, when it was associated with regional American speech.
The objection is logical. The prefix ir- negates, and so does the suffix -less. Taken apart, irregardless should mean "not without regard" — the opposite of what the speaker intends. Critics treat it as a double negative in disguise.
The defense of a "wrong" word
Linguists tend to be less bothered, for a simple reason: nobody misunderstands it. A word that is used consistently, understood instantly and recorded for over two hundred years is, by any descriptive standard, part of the language. English has other words whose prefixes do not do what they seem to: inflammable means the same as flammable, and unloosen means loosen.
Many speakers also use irregardless on purpose, for emphasis or humor, the way one might say "supposably" or "nucular" with a wink. Once a word becomes a known marker, saying it can be a choice rather than a mistake.
The day a dictionary broke the internet
In 2019, Merriam-Webster pointed out on social media that irregardless has an entry in its dictionary. The reaction was immediate and furious, as if the dictionary had approved of the word rather than simply recorded it. That episode summed up the gap between how lexicographers see their job — describing how people actually talk — and how much of the public sees it: as a referee.
That gap is what this tally will measure. Vote "it's fine" if you think usage makes the rule. Vote "it's not a real word" if you think some forms should be resisted, whatever the dictionaries record. Expect the result to say as much about attitudes toward dictionaries as about the word itself.
Sources: Merriam-Webster entry and usage note for "irregardless"; Oxford English Dictionary historical citations; usage guidance in major American style manuals.