Emma Hickey reports from the RDS

AS COUNTING RAMPS up and tallies are completed, the talking point is Catherine Connolly’s impending win – and the sheer number of spoiled votes.

With only two willing candidates on the ballot (and the ghost of Fianna Fáil’s Jim Gavin), turnout has been low, as expected. Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys has been performing badly almost all across the board tallies show. In some local areas, the number of first preferences for her are lower than the number of invalid ballots.

A campaign for people to spoil their votes, championed by businessman Declan Ganley, emerged from the wreckage of an unsuccessful council route explored by hopefuls in September.

People who advocated for spoiled votes expressed unhappiness with the Fine Gael diktat barring its councillors from nominating an alternative presidential candidate, as well as disappointment with the Oireachtas route that left hopeful Maria Steen two nominations shy of the 20 required to make it onto the ballot.

While it gathered traction online it was unclear as to how that would translate on polling day.

In some electoral areas in Dublin city, at least, it gained enough traction to surpass votes for Heather Humphreys. Dublin North West and Dublin Central were the areas spoilt votes featured most heavily, particularly in boxes from Ballymun and Finglas.

Some ballots were spoiled with an X across the paper, while others bore messages like “Doesn’t represent me” and “Spoiled vote”. Others referenced the alleged sexual assault of a young girl in Citywest earlier this week. 

A spoiled vote with an encouraging message for count staff. Emma Hickey / The Journal Emma Hickey / The Journal / The Journal

Few had alternative candidates written in: Nick Delehanty, who missed on out a nomination after trying the council route; Maria Steen; Conor McGregor. One voter had glued a photo of their dog Honey to the bottom of the ballot, marked No 1. Another had written “Thanks for efforts counting!!” at the bottom of theirs.

Tally people marking down first preferences also took note of spoiled votes, and many were shocked at the number. 

One tally person at Dublin North West showed The Journal his tally sheet as he completed one box from Ballymun. Connolly received 120 votes. Humphreys 7. Gavin 4. And spoiled votes were at 128. 

“I’ve never seen it like this,” he said. Count staff expressed similar sentiments. 

Late-stage tallies showed spoiled votes overtake Humphreys and Gavin in Dublin North West.

Earlier on in the day another tally woman at Dublin Bay North had resorted to filling in the margins with Connolly’s votes spilling over. Connolly had 197 votes from that box, Humphreys 90, Gavin 38. Spoiled votes totalled 29.

Despite the number being much lower than other boxes and areas, she said: “The level of spoiled votes – I’ve never seen anything like it. People writing all over [the ballot] and the level of vitriol coming off it.

“I’ve tallied four elections now and this is different to anything I’ve seen before.” 

Meanwhile, also speaking to RTÉ, Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said: “One of the headline issues of today’s election is those who have spoiled their votes or voted for Jim Gavin. It’s two fingers to the political establishment.”

Tóibín was Steen’s main backer and has been vocal in his belief that Steen was “blocked” from contesting the election.

“So many individuals have actually taken their time to launch the protest to the political system today. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, Simon Harris and Micheál Martin, no doubt, will be wringing their hands over the next while, but they engineered this,” he said.

“They are directly responsible for this high level of spoiled votes and for the number of people who did not vote because they excluded individuals entirely unfairly.”