About 4,000 polling centres will be open between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. today. Some 2,688,300 registered voters are entitled to take part in both the election of a President and the referendum on the proposed Amendment to the Constitution regarding Cabinet confidentiality.
The presidential count will begin at 9 a.m. tomorrow and the result of the first count is expected between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. Subsequent counts, following the elimination of candidates, are expected to take approximately two hours per count.
All eligible voters should have received a voting card which includes information on their local polling centre. The votes cast today will be counted tomorrow at 29 counting centres. The results at these centres will be faxed to a national counting centre at Dublin Castle, where they will be announced by the Presidential Returning Officer as they come in.
The count of the votes for the Presidency is to be done first, receiving priority over the votes cast in the referendum.
On the Presidency, voters can vote for the candidates in order of their choice - 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
The second issue involves voting for or against the proposed 17th Amendment to the Constitution. Voters will be asked to mark an X in a box to indicate Yes, or X in another box to indicate No. The results of this poll should be known on Saturday.
Electors intending to vote should bring identification with them when going to their local polling centre. A polling card does not constitute identification.
Acceptable identification documents are passports; driving licences; employee or student ID; a book for social welfare allowances, benefits or pensions; medical cards; free travel cards; travel documents containing name and photograph; unemployment signing on cards; social services cards; bank or savings bank books; cheque books; cheque cards; credit cards; credit union membership cards; birth certificates; or marriage certificates.
