Election count: what time do they stop counting Friday night?

JonnyXXX

any idea when the count stops for the night on Friday night? RTE are running till 2.35AM on TV, probably 3am on radio.

DMC

Depends on...

a) they feel they can fill the seats by then, in one go.
b) there isn't the prospect of recounts, and
c) if the returning officer is arsed.

I don't think there is a set rule, just common sense.

wow sierra

We finished the last local elections at about 2am. There is pressure to get it finished as soon as possible so I imagine anything up to 3 or 3.30 anyway would be allowed to avoid going in to a second day. Depends on number of counts, rechecks etc needed. A lot of seats wont be decided until Saturday. I hope we are finished early in Dublin North so we can enjoy the TV coverage but it doesn't look good at the moment - no clear likely winners.

oscarBravo

At the last count in Castlebar it went on until the counting was finished - it was in the TF Royal theatre, which was booked for a gig the following night!

upmeath

oscarBravo wrote:

it went on until the counting was finished

Really? That's hard to believe, I mean, why would it go on until the counting was finished? Surely they could have stopped a few hundred or maybe a thousand votes from the end and taken a wild guess on the last couple of seats?

oscarBravo

Har har. I meant they didn't break for the night and resume in the morning, as often happens.