European Election

European elections: Why are counts so slow?

Ireland’s three constituencies lag behind other member states when it comes to the count

Count staff sort ballots at Nemo Rangers GAA club in Cork, Ireland, during the count for the European elections. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire

Fiachra Gallagher
Paul O'Malley
Mon Jun 10 2024 - 16:14

With final results filtering in for European Parliament elections from across the member states, Ireland’s three constituencies lag behind. But why?

Some commentators contend that the problem starts in the polling station: with both local and European elections held at the same time, voters last Friday dropped two ballot papers – one for each election – into the same ballot box. This, of course, necessitates the first step of the subsequent count – separating local and European ballot papers.

The Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government says that this is the way to go. “The current practice of using one ballot box is considered the most effective way of conducting the poll and the count,” a spokesperson for the Department said.

A spokesperson later added: “On the segregation of ballot papers question, the count for a poll cannot proceed until all ballot papers for that poll are accounted for and all ballot papers are at the count centre in question. As the European and local elections’ counts take place in different places – and often at great distances given the size of a European Parliament constituency – if ballot papers for one election were found in the wrong ballot box (e.g. local election ballot paper found in European election ballot box; likely due to human error), the logistics of transporting the ballot paper to the right count centre would cause delays to the commencement of the count.”

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Of the three Irish constituencies, the Midlands-North-West count is traditionally one of the longest to complete. A first count is expected on Monday evening.

[ Live updates: Tight European race in Dublin counts with recounts under way in some local contests ]

According to returning officer Marian Chambers Higgins, there are a few reasons for this. “We have a possible 1.3 million voters, and we have five seats,” she says. In other words, there are a lot of votes to count.

This election sees 27 candidates running in for the constituency’s 5 seats. An extra-long ballot paper – 73cm to be precise – also adds to the sorting time, says Ms Chambers Higgins.

The sorting of European ballots did not begin until Sunday morning at the TF Royal Hotel in Castlebar, after votes were transported from across the vast constituency to the count centre. Then, a 320-strong team of counters set to work.

Votes were first sorted into purpose-built pigeonholes. After votes are sorted, a precise counting process begins: first-preference votes for each candidate are stacked in bundles of 50, weighed to ensure accuracy, and then stacked again to make a pile of 500 votes.

Ballot boxes for the Local and European Elections opened at the RDS. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw for The Irish Times

In Midlands-North-West, more prominent candidates were counted first, including Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan (Independent), Barry Cowen (Fianna Fáil) and Maria Walsh (Fine Gael).

During the counting process, doubtful votes are removed from the count to be later adjudicated on by the returning officer, along with candidates and their agents. These include votes that don’t have a clear preference.

Counts have been slow in some local election counts.

An unfolding, sequential chain of events in the TF Royal Hotel & Theatre in Castlebar has led to the north Mayo constituency being the last LEA in the country to hold its first count.

[ The Irish Times view: an early general election is now more likely ]

The plan had been for Castlebar, Swinford and Ballina’s counts to take place in the Velvet Room upstairs in the TF and for Claremorris, Belmullet and Westport to take place in the Ruby Room downstairs.

Swinford was slated to begin at 10am on Sunday, however, Castlebar’s count went through the night on Saturday, ending on Sunday morning just after 8am. Count staff in the Velvet Room were sent home for a few hours respite before beginning in Swinford at the later time of 2pm.

There was a further twist; a recount was called around 9pm last night in Swinford. With the Westport count under way downstairs in the Ruby Room, it was decided that Ballina would instead begin in the Ruby Room at 10am on Monday morning.

The Swinford recount is currently in full swing in the Velvet Room while the first count took place downstairs in the Ruby Room for Ballina just before 3pm.

Fiachra Gallagher

Fiachra Gallagher

Fiachra Gallagher is an Irish Times journalist

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