This comes with a large health warning as the count is only underway two hours, but early tallies on a limited number of boxes show huge numbers of spoiled votes in the Presidential election.
“Spoiled votes are going to play a huge part in this election”, RTÉ’s Samantha Libreri acknowledged from the outset of the count the boxes were opened, and spoiled votes were in double digits.
As expected, Catherine Connolly will win the election by a landslide, but the real story of the day is the sheer number of spoiled votes with many referencing either blocked candidate Maria Steen, immigration, or the alleged sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl in Citywest.
Shane Beatty of Newstalk showing a tally of one box from Dublin South Central found that spoiled voters were more than 30% of the total, though that pattern will not be found in areas more supportive of Heather Humphreys.
One box in Dublin North West even saw spoiled votes overtake the front runner, with reporter Emma Hickey posting: “spoiled votes outnumbering Connolly and Humphreys. Very strong spoiled vote in Dublin North West. Tally people telling me they’ve never seen anything like it.”
However, the pattern was not seen everywhere, with some reporters around 8% for spoiled votes in boxes. A clearer picture will emerge as the day wears on, but anything above the 6% expected from polling for the spoiled vote campaign will be seen as a significant win.
The coming hours will tell whether the spoiled votes will overtake support for Heather Humphreys nationally, which would be a stunning upset for Fine Gael.