First count from Athlone LEA: Kelly exceeds all expectations, topping the poll as a first-time candidate
After a long day of tallying and counting yesterday with counting continuing into this morning, we finally have the first official count out of the Roscommon count centre here at Dr Hyde Park.
The first count for the Athlone Local Electoral Area (LEA) has just been announced after a lengthy deliberation over the spoiled votes in the district ended at nearly 1 am this morning when counting was adjourned for the night. According to tallies, there were 55 spoiled ballots to be adjudicated, the actual number of spoiled ballots was 85. This process was assumed to be completed last night, but with the last seat too close to call, a further ten ballots were adjudicated this morning, after the counting resumed at 10 am this morning (Sunday, June 9th).
Disputed ballots
Punters have, understandably, been curious as to why there was such careful attention being paid to these ballots, with a further ten ballots adjudicated this morning. An analysis of the tallies by the (somewhat) battleworn press core, last night, indicated that there could be less than 10 votes between 3 candidates following the redistribution of Cllr Emer Kelly’s surplus of over 550 votes.
Fianna Fáil’s James Murray, Sinn Féin’s Sam Brooks, and Fine Gael’s Dominic Connolly are all within shouting distance of taking the last seat and with margins so razor-thin, the candidates and their election agents were going to leave nothing to chance.
Tallies
According to the tallies, Cllr Kelly topped the poll with 1948 first preferences. Following the tallies, Fine Gael’s Cllr John Naughten had a surplus of approximately 350 votes to be redistributed also. Independent Cllr Tony Ward, too, had in the region of 250 surplus votes to redistribute.
Count
The official results of the first count for the Athlone LEA are as follows:
Electorate: 15862
Total poll: 9903
Invalid ballots: 85
Valid poll: 9818
Quota: 1403
Seats: 6
Results of first count:
Brooks (SF) : 515
Connolly (FG) : 482
Fallon (IND) : 1,202
Harney (SF) : 405
Kelly (IND) : 1,946
Keogh (FF) : 931
Murray (FF) : 547
Naughten (FG) : 1,750
Naughton (IND) : 254
Ward (IND) : 1,786
Emer Kelly, John Naughton & Tony Ward all deemed elected. The surplus of Emer Kelly (543) will now be redistributed.
Redistribution
Once the approximately 1200 surplus votes here are redistributed, there could be a much clearer picture of who is going to take the last seat in this LEA.
