Come to the election count

Have you ever seen how votes are counted in an election? Green Party supporters can join us at the count on Thursday 5 and Friday 6 May this year.

We are there to inspect the count, not do the counting. We are looking for mistakes by tired counters, like putting ballots in the wrong pile.

In particular, when the ballot boxes are opened on Thursday evening, we can tally votes. Tallying, as done by Irish Tally(wo)men, is to tick off against a candidate each vote as it comes out of the ballot box. With a sample of 50 to 100 votes, we can work out which particular streets within a ward have more Green voters. That is rather useful thing to know when planning the next election campaign.

So we need 24 volunteers to come on Thursday evening, from 10 p.m., with the candidates and agents to tally the votes. Please sign up if you can come. I need to submit a list of counting agents to the council before 2 May. Only those on the list can get in.

Then on Friday morning, from 9.30 a.m., the staff start to count the votes for each city council candidate. We just keep watch for mistakes. Let me know if you want to come to that.