A long wait at the count centre as officials literally weigh up Kerry’s election result

IT was a long day in Killarney for those counting the presidential election and blasphemy vote with Kerry one of the last constituencies to announce the official result.

Directions from Dublin dictated that Kerry was not to release the result until the President Michael D Higgins came to Dublin Castle and as it turned out he had been formally announced as the winner of the presidency almost 20 minutes before the official result for the Kerry constituency was actually announced.

The final result with an electorate of 111,777 had a total valid poll of 50,078. There was 565 spoilt votes including one for journalist Gemma O’Doherty from a voter in Lixnaw and another insulting Michael D Higgins.

There was a 45% turn-out in Kerry for the presidential election. Nationally the turn-out was 43% - the lowest turn out for any presidential election.

Though counting had been completed by early afternoon, and the official result relayed to Dublin Castle, it was many hours later before the result became public.

The count in Kerry was also aided in its accuracy by the use of a weighing scales that weighed the votes. This was previously used in other constituencies but it was the first time that the equipment was rolled out in Kerry.

The scales takes into account the weight of the ballot in a bid to ensure that an accurate count of the ballot papers was undertaken.

According to returning officer, Padraig Burke, the scales is similar to that used to count money and was being used as a test in Kerry to see if it is useful in sorting and counting ballot papers and it may come into play in future election counts. The county will be back at the polls on May 24,2019 again for the local and European elections .