Gavan Reilly: When every vote can count, every vote should

If you needed proof that every vote counts: Holly Cairns could end this year as a cabinet minister, having only entered public office five years ago when she won a seat on Cork County Council by literally a single vote. Local elections do have ripple effects nationwide.

So too did the count in Listowel in Kerry, in 2014 - which resulted in a major change to how ballot papers might be counted this June.

The change involves something that you yourself may have done in the past. Because we usually vote in local elections alongside those for the European Parliament, most voters are handed two ballot papers at the same time. Some of us (wrongly but understandably) treat the two ballot papers as if they were related, and cast a single set of preferences across them - maybe with numbers 1-2-3 on one ballot, and 4-5-6 on the other.

The longstanding rule for returning officers was that both ballot papers should count: the voter had clearly stated which candidates they wanted in. It was only after the 2014 elections in Listowel, Co Kerry, that a defeated candidate took a court case which resulted in the rule being clarified – a ballot without a number 1 couldn’t count. (The defeated candidate behind the case still lost.)

This interpretation likely discriminates against those who have less experience with the democratic process. I remember being in the RDS in 2019 when Sinn Féin figures were looking at council seats being lost, and wondering if some could have been saved if only ballot papers with a 2-4-6-8 were valid.

The funny thing is, pretty much everyone in political life agrees the old interpretation should be restored. Yet, even though the rules could be changed by a stroke of Darragh O’Brien’s pen, it hasn’t been.