Polling staff, like medical people, have their preferred clichés. While hospital patients are usually "stable" or "comfortable", turnout on polling day attracts only a small variety of adjectives.
Yesterday's preferred description was "steady". This is understood to mean that staff at polling stations had voters to deal with more or less all day. Unscientific and anecdotal evidence pointed to the absence everywhere of any "lull" - another poll-clerk cliche - normally associated with European elections.
Voters contended with two parallel elections, involving two ballot papers, two electoral voting systems and two ballot boxes.
No wonder 27,000 spoiled ballots were recorded in 2001, the last time the ploy of holding parliamentary and local elections simultaneously was tried.
While bookies had long stopped taking bets on the likes of Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams, what media interest there was left after a low-key, month-long campaign centres on the handful of seats that could change hands.
In Lagan Valley, David Trimble beamed for the cameras and gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up, despite the many predictions of his demise. Those holding the power to endorse or dismiss him were, of course, in the neighbouring Upper Bann constituency. But Mr Trimble has the honour of living in Jeffrey Donaldson's constituency, in an area which has been visited with enthusiasm by DUP canvassers.
David Simpson, Mr Trimble's DUP opponent and the favourite to clinch the UUP leader's seat, spent much of his day encouraging what he believes is an anti-Trimble majority to state on their ballot papers what they have been telling him on the doorstep.
In West Belfast, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams opted for casual, woolly-jumper mode as voters no doubt set about giving him another anxiety-free majority.
The Rev Ian Paisley, also near certain to retain his North Antrim seat as he has at every general election since 1970, voted early, sporting a red, white and blue rosette with matching tie.
Not so certain of his result was Sinn Féin general secretary Mitchel McLaughlin in Foyle. Mark Durkan, bidding to retain an SDLP majority of any size, turned out to vote with his infant daughter Dearhaill, who cannot vote for her father for another 17 years and eight months.
Sinn Féin sources in Derry privately and confidently insisted they would take the seat, just as SDLP workers forecast a Durkan majority of 2,000.
In South Antrim, rebel Ulster Unionist MP David Burnside looked to the heavens for indications of the likely turnout in his battle with DUP man Willie McCrea.
The response was mixed - a bright, breezy spring morning gave way to a rain-interrupted afternoon before settled weather returned after teatime.
South Belfast, a two-way, three-way or four-way contest, depending on which party you talk to, appeared to have prompted greater than usual interest. Voter participation seemed set to rise as the evening rush got under way.
No such turnout concerns west of the Bann, where substantial numbers are the norm and reports referred to queues forming at 7.05am in parts of Fermanagh.
North elections: the counts
Counting in the Northern Ireland Westminster constituencies begins this morning at eight count centres. The first reliable indications are not expected before mid afternoon. The 18 seats are being contested by 105 candidates seeking the votes of the 1,148,486 people on the electoral register.
Voters were assigned to 1,543 polling stations at 614 centres across the North. Polling ceased last night at 10pm having opened at 7am.
Westminster elections, unlike all others in Northern Ireland, employ a first-past-the-post system whereby electors must only mark the ballot paper with an "X" opposite their single candidate of choice.
This makes the count procedure much simpler than the single transferable vote version of proportional representation which is used in other elections.
Despite this, chief electoral officer Dennis Stanley has said he wants a reliable and accurate count rather than an early one.
Bookies regard just five or six of the 18 seats as marginal. Party leaders David Trimble and Mark Durkan are fighting David Simpson and Mitchel McLaughlin to retain their party grip on Upper Bann and on Foyle.
Lady Sylvia Hermon is seeking to hold North Down against the first-time challenge of the DUP's Peter Weir.
There is intense unionist rivalry in South Antrim between the DUP's Rev William McCrea and Ulster Unionist hardliner David Burnside.
South Belfast also sees a convoluted struggle between UUP former minister Michael McGimpsey and Jimmy Spratt, his DUP challenger. If the unionist vote divides equally, then SDLP deputy leader Alasdair McDonnell could break through the middle to take the seat.
Voters are also electing 582 members to sit on Northern Ireland's 26 local councils. Turnout figures for the local government elections are expected to be higher, thanks to the decision to hold both polls simultaneously. Counting in the council elections is being held over until Monday morning and is expected to take two days. - Dan Keenan