Slow voter turnout at booths across Laois this morning

Early tallies indicate a slow start to voting in the Presidential Election across Laois this morning. 

A sample of the turnout from three booths at Knockmay National School in Portlaoise taken  at 8.45am this morning showed voting was starting very slowly. In one booth with 536 registered voters eight people had cast their ballot. In a second booth of 747 voters there were 18 votes while in a third booth at Knockmay NS, 12 of the 641 registered voters had cast their ballot. 

A similar picture emerged in Scoil Phadraig Naofa BNS in Mountmellick where three booths reflected the same pattern. Of the 713 registered voters in the first booth, 12 had voted. In the second eight of 685 votes had been cast while in the third it was eight of 621.  

In Portarlington Presentation School three booths were sampled at 8.45am these showed a total of 27 votes. A booth with 554 voters had 10, another booth with 522 had five and the third booth of 469 had 12 votes. 

In Graiguecullen the picture was the same. Three booths at St Fiac’s Hall had 28 votes at 8.45 am.  The first booth which was open to 803 registered voters had ten votes while the second which was open to 703 voters had eight and the third had 625 eligible voters and 10 votes. 

Turnout is expected to be poor in the election which has been dogged by criticism of the nomination process which resulted in just three official candidates on the ballot paper in the race to the Aras.  

Voting will continue throughout the day to determine who will be the next President of Ireland. There are three candidates on the ballot paper Catherine Connolly, Heather Humphreys and Jim Gavin, who unusually dropped out of the race but remains on the ballot paper. 

The voting will continue across the county until 10pm tonight. Voters do not need to have a polling card to vote and can use a valid identification card.