FIRST-COUNT results in the presidential election should be known by late tomorrow evening with the final outcome possibly available at about midnight at the very earliest or more likely by lunchtime Saturday.
Predicting the times of election results is an inexact science and the unusually large number of seven candidates for the presidency is compounding the difficulties in this respect.
Approximately 3.2 million voters are eligible to cast their ballot in the presidential election and the referendums on judges’ pay and the powers of Oireachtas inquiries today.
Voting takes place today from 7am to 10pm. To verify eligibility to vote, consult checktheregister.ie and, if a voting card has not been received, photographic identification will be accepted at the polling station, eg passport or driving licence.
The count in each constituency will begin at 9am tomorrow with the opening of the ballot boxes, the segregation of the ballot papers into those relating to the presidential poll and those for each referendum, and the verification of the ballot paper accounts for each ballot box (ie comparing the number of ballot papers in each box with the relevant account furnished by the presiding officer).
The ballot papers are colour-coded for convenience: presidential election in white; judges’ remuneration in green; and Oireachtas inquiries in blue.
The counting of the votes for the presidential election will be first, followed by counting for the 29th Amendment of the Constitution (Judges’ Remuneration) Bill 2011 and then counting for the 30th Amendment of the Constitution (Houses of the Oireachtas Inquiries) Bill 2011.
At all stages, counting at the presidential election will take precedence over counting in the referendums. As the count is completed in the various constituencies, the local returning officers will notify the returning officer of the results and these will then be displayed on a large screen located in the central count centre in Dublin Castle.
The same ballot box will be used for the polls at the presidential election and the referendums but in the Dublin West constituency, a separate ballot box will be used for the poll at the byelection.
The presidential result will be declared in Dublin Castle. The first count is likely to be completed by about 7.30-8.00pm tomorrow.
At that stage, a decision will be taken on which candidate or candidates are to be eliminated so that their votes can be redistributed under the rules of proportional representation.
The second count will then commence and, if it seems likely a final result can be obtained within a few hours, counting could continue until about midnight.
However, if it becomes apparent that no final result will be reached by about midnight, it is likely the count will be suspended at the appropriate time, to resume at 9am on Saturday.
The counting of the votes in the referendums will not formally begin until after the outcome of the presidential ballot and no figures will be submitted to the Dublin Castle count centre until the presidential count is complete.
However, it is expected that the referendum counts will proceed fairly quickly and the outcomes should be known within a few hours of the presidential result.
Principal officer Ríona Ní Fhlanghaile from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government has been appointed as the returning officer for the presidential election and the referendums.
