Analysis: The ins and outs of counting the votes in an Irish presidential election, as we prepare to vote in our 10th head of state
Voting is a complicated business. It involves looking at the preferences of a large group of people and deciding what to do based on those preferences. In some voting systems, like the UK's first-past-the-post system, voters only get to express their first preference. In this case, counting is relatively simple: the person with the most first preference votes wins.
In Irish elections, we generally ask people for multiple preferences. You write "1" beside the candidate you want the most, "2" beside the one you would choose if your number 1 wasn't available, and so
on. While this makes counting more complicated, it has the advantage of having more information about people's preferences, and so can take that information into account. For example, as has happened in 2025, if a candidate drops out, then the other preferences of a voter who votes for that candidate can still be taken into account.
The rules for running our elections are mostly set out in the 1992 Electoral Act, but for the presidential election there are extra details in the 1993 Electoral Act. These rules are applied by the Returning Officer, who is in charge of the count. In the case of a presidential election, there are also local returning officers, as the count is spread out over the country.
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From RTÉ Archives, An RTÉ News report broadcast on 17 September 1990 about Ireland's first six presidents
Surprisingly, the first step of counting the votes is to mix them up. This is more important in local and general elections, where there are multiple seats to be filled, and so the surplus of a candidate can be redistributed. Mixing helps ensure that the surplus is not all taken from one part of the constituency. Since there is only one position to be filled for the presidential election, surpluses are never transferred, so it is less of an issue.
The next step is to sort the votes into piles according to their first preference. This is also where the spoiled votes are counted. There are four ways a vote can be spoiled: 1) if it hasn't been stamped, 2) if there is no first preference, 3) if there are multiple first preferences, or 4) if something has been written on the ballot that could be used to identify the voter. This last measure is important, as it stops people being paid to vote a particular way. Number three is surprisingly common; if you write a 1 and a 7 that look very similar, you can accidentally spoil your vote.
With the spoiled votes removed, the remaining valid ballot papers are used to find the quota. The quota is the target number of votes for a candidate to be elected. If, after a round of counting, a candidate has more than the quota, then they are declared elected.
Read more: The winners (and losers) from Irish presidential elections
For a presidential election, the quota is half the number of valid ballot papers (rounded down) plus one. For example, if there are 1,000,000 votes, the quota is 500,001. Why? Because two candidates could not possibly have 500,001 votes, so that prevents us electing two candidates.
At this stage, if one candidate is over the quota, they are declared elected, and the count stops. Otherwise, the count continues. The candidate with the lowest number of votes is "eliminated". Here, this candidate's votes are sorted according to the next available preference and moved to the corresponding candidate's pile of votes. If multiple candidates have already been eliminated, this might mean skipping down the list of remaining preferences. If a vote has no preferences left who are still in the running, then the vote is put in a special pile called "non-transferable papers not effective" and it has no further influence on the process.
There are some rules for what happens in special situations. For example, if there are multiple candidates tied on the lowest number of votes, there are rules to determine who is eliminated first. Similarly, in some cases it is clear that two candidates will be eliminated in a row, and in that case the returning office may eliminate both of them at once.
If a candidate reaches 25% of the quota before being eliminated, they are eligible to have some of their election expenses reimbursed. A candidate can also request a recount, if they think something has
gone awry.
Counts continue until either some candidate reaches the quota, or there is only one candidate left. When that happens, we know who the new president will be!
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
