Access to the Count Centre

There would be chaos if anyone could just rock up to a count centre and get close enough to watch the count.

It was said on TV earlier today that each candidate may get maybe 4 passes. In the morning party members (or no party at all)will be around doing their tallying which seems to be more of an art than a science and later in the day they will go home and the candidate and friends & family will use the passes.

Most certainly not a free for all

I went to the count centre at the racecourse in Limerick to watch the count for the directly elected mayor, however I was not allowed into the centre. It turns out that only media or friends of people running are allowed into the centre which was very surprising to me. I know it's to prevent harassment and things but I thought it was a real shame. It's not really a good feeling when you can't watch the process that's supposed to elect and legitimise your government, and the staff at the door weren't particularly helpful, although I suppose there's not much they could do. As a Limerickman though it gave me a bit of a bad feeling that I wasn't welcome to observe my own elections.

Most of the count centres I have visited have been very busy places, at least on the first day. The controls are mostly to make sure numbers don't get out of hand. You will often find that security eases up later in the day or on the next day but I would expect future elections to have increased security generally. Maybe contact the returning officer, before election day if you want to visit in future. Or contact a local candidate/party to see if they want some help wth the tally.

It also has to be a public space so that democracy can be seen in action. There is a huge amount of work done in the election and in the days following by the staff.

If it is possible to get access, I would recommend helping out and taking part. It is very interesting, and sometimes long spaces of waiting, but well worth visiting to see how your STV travels through the system. You could even get to see your own vote being sorted, counted and hopefully contributing to someone's election.

How do you become a vote sorter and vote counter person? Are these county council staff in the main or civil servants?

Apply to the local returning officer. It is usually the same people working in polling stations on election day and working at the count.

Outside of cities, you basically can.

See above - in plenty of the country you can just wander in. The counters and hence the votes are behind barriers. There's Gardai there. You won't get anywhere near enough to do that.

Fair enough I suppose, should've used my famous charm, but they didn't seem like they were going to let us shneak in tbh, I was there with my dad so I doubt we looked like a threat to anyone but sure look it, hopefully it'll be a bit more chill next time

No. If you spot the box from your polling station, and there are 200 votes in the box, if you watch them being sorted, you will see your vote being sorted. If you gave your first preference to a candidate that got only 1 first preference (or some other combination of preferences) in the same box then you might recognise your vote.

Noone else is able recognise your vote - but you might.

Each box is numbered so it should not be difficult to find it.

I’m a member of a political party and a WhatsApp group message asked if any of us were experienced tally-ers to help at one of the recounts.

Technically, the person who handed you your ballot paper could recognise your vote, if they noted the number. Why they would do it is another question, and they would only be able to remember one or two from each box.