At 9am on Saturday morning, one of the great rituals of Irish public life gets under way when ballot boxes are opened and counting commences of votes cast in the local and and European elections and for a Limerick mayor. Two decades after plans to move to electronic voting were abandoned, the manual paper count remains an enduring set-piece of Irish democracy, a spectacle with its own traditions, from the early tally to the filling of the final seat.
What is lost in speed and efficiency is made up for in transparency and a sense of the importance of the voting process. The long count is both an in-depth civics lesson and a piece of political theatre. It can combine the emotional drama of a knockout sporting fixture with the challenge of a knotty mathematical problem.
It does, admittedly, go on for a very long time. While most of Europe will vote on Sunday and deliver its results that same evening, the final outcome of Friday’s European Parliament elections in Ireland’s three constituencies will likely not be known until the middle of next week. Local election counts will also stretch over the full weekend, at least. If a returning officer deems it necessary, proceedings may continue well past midnight.
But with democracy across the world under pressure from voter disengagement, demagoguery and conspiracy theories, Ireland’s electoral count is a robust counterweight to these anti-democratic trends. All the more reason, therefore, to be concerned by Garda warnings of potentially disruptive behaviour at this weekend’s counts. Contingency plans have been put in place to address any threat that might occur, a sensible measure in the aftermath of a campaign marked by multiple reports from candidates and canvassers of assaults and abuse.
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Ireland’s electoral system is far from perfect. The new Electoral Commission needs to move as quickly as possible to modernise the voting register. Postal voting lags far behind what is provided in most comparable countries. There are other improvements to be made. But the count itself is a festival of democracy to be cherished.