With the smell of an election in the air, the launch of an academic study of "the long count" in Co Laois was timely indeed.
Last year the counting of local authority votes in Laois began on Saturday, June 12th, and recounts for the last seat in the Borris-in-Ossory area began the next day.
The recount of votes for the last council seat continued until the next Wednesday because two candidates, Larry Kavanagh of Labour and John Bonham of Fine Gael ended up on equal votes of 795.
Eventually, the returning officer, Mr Louis Brennan, who is secretary of Laois County Council, declared Mr Bonham elected and this led to a petition to the courts.
Mr Brennan's book, Count, Recount and Petition, outlines how he reached that decision and how that decision was upheld in the court petition taken by Mr Kavanagh.
His petition centred on 21 ballot papers and Mr Brennan's decision on them. The court actions did not end until late last November when the matter was fully resolved.
All the disputed ballot papers have been reproduced in the book so the reader can look at how the decisions were made to allow or reject them.
Last Thursday both Mr Kavanagh and Mr Bonham were back in the council chamber in Portaloise for the launch of the book, published by the Institute of Public Administration.
Speaking at the launch, the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Mr Dempsey, said he believed there was a better way of conducting elections.
He announced that his Department would soon be inviting tenders for an electronic voting and counting system to do away with ballot papers.
He said that while it will take some years to bring this about, it will eliminate the possibility of a candidate asking for a recount.
"The right to question an election result by way of petition will, of course, be retained, mainly to consider points of law arising from the count," he said.
"The courts will have the power, as a last resort, to order that all the votes recorded electronically be printed as individual ballot papers and counted in the traditional way," he said.
Count, Recount and Petition is available from the Institute of Public Administration or County Hall, Portlaoise. It costs £10.
