LAST UPDATE | 7 Jun

PEOPLE ARE VOTING in the European Parliament and local elections, as well as for a directly elected mayor in Limerick.

As voters head to the polls, let’s take a look at how the Irish voting system works.

Proportional representation with a single transferable vote (PR-STV) is relatively unique, Ireland and Malta are the only countries to use it. A ‘party list’ system is more common internationally.

So, what exactly is PR-STV and how does it work? And what will the ballot papers look like?

How do I vote? 

The ballot papers will show the names of the candidates in alphabetical order, along with their photographs and their party emblem (if they have one).

Voters indicate who they would like to see elected in order of preference – so, you should write 1 opposite your first choice, 2 opposite your second choice, 3 opposite your third choice, and so on.

Sample ballot paper Electoral Commission Electoral Commission

Do not make any other mark on the ballot paper. If you do, your vote may be considered invalid/spoilt and not counted.

You should not write X or tick the box beside candidates, this could also spoil your vote.

When you have voted you should fold your ballot paper, return and place it into the ballot box at the same station.

How does my vote work?

Only one of the preferences in your vote is active at a time.

Your vote stays with your first preference candidate unless and until they do not need it anymore – either because they have been elected with a surplus of votes over the quota, or eliminated from the race.

If your first preference candidate is elected, your vote is transferred to your second preference. If your second choice is elected or eliminated, your vote may be transferred to your third choice, and so on.

Your vote could transfer a number of times at the same election to your lower preference candidates, depending on how many people you give a preference to.

If a candidate receives more than the quota on any count, the surplus votes are transferred to the remaining candidates in proportion to the next available preferences indicated by voters.

As explained by Citizens Information, if the quota to be elected is 5,000 votes and candidate A receives 6,000 first preference votes at the first count, they are elected with a surplus of 1,000 votes.

Let’s say that out of candidate A’s 6,000 total votes, 30% of voters gave their second preference to candidate B, and 20% gave their second preference to candidate C. In this scenario, B receives 300 votes (30% of 1,000) and C receives 200 votes (20% of 1,000).

In the latest episode of The Explainer podcast, Virgin Media’s Political Correspondent Gav Reilly noted that your vote works a “little bit harder” in Ireland than in countries such as the US or UK “where you only get one vote, you vote for one candidate”.

In Ireland, if your first choice candidate gets eliminated or elected early “and they’ve got spare votes that they don’t need… those votes can be passed on”, Reilly explained. 

“Ultimately, what you have is an outcome which is slightly more representative of broader consensus, rather than just being a straightforward popularity contest,” he added.

Should you vote all the way down the ballot paper?

One of the perennial questions asked every time an election rolls around in Ireland is: Should you vote all the way down the ballot paper?

In short, there are different schools of thought on this – as outlined here.

In some constituencies, it would be quite time-consuming to vote the whole way down the ballot paper but, of course, this is up to the individual.

There are 27 candidates running the Midlands North West constituency, and 23 candidates in both Ireland South and Dublin, for example.

Reilly told The Explainer that voters are at liberty to “cast as many or as few preferences” as they like.

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He continued: “The best way to make sure that your vote is as useful as possible is for you to consider in advance how many candidates you might ultimately like to see get elected.

“And indeed, in some cases, if there’s anyone that you absolutely don’t want to see getting elected.”

If there are specific candidates that you “absolutely don’t want to get elected”, you should vote “for literally everybody else”.

A Polling Station sign in Dublin in 2021 Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Giving an example, Reilly said if there are 10 people running in a constituency including two you really don’t want to get elected, “the best way to try and achieve that is to cast preferences 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 for the eight other candidates in your preferred order”.

You will only ever help a candidate if you are voting for them, a candidate that you don’t put a preference beside gets nothing out of you.

“But the thing that a lot of people don’t always understand or don’t realise, is that if you leave a whole slew of candidates blank and you don’t give them anything, basically what you are telling the returning officer and the count staff is that you are passive, you are meh about which of them may or may not get in.

“And if that is genuinely the case, if you are completely passive about those candidates, you are at liberty to do that.

“But if, of those remaining candidates, there’s some that you’d prefer to see rather than others, you should keep voting until you’ve run out of all your preferences or until you know that you’ve listed all of the candidates in the true preference of order that you have.”

Reilly acknowledged that giving out as many preferences as possible get more complicated when there are lots of candidates, but it’s something voters should consider. 

One danger, particularly when you have very long ballot papers where you could have 20 plus candidates, is that you might end up unwittingly giving equal weighting to some people that you sort of feel okay about, and some people that you don’t.

“That is the challenge of the voting system, particularly when there are so many candidates that there is something of an onus on the voter to figure out who they all are, and to figure out what they stand for.”

Reilly added that this is, in a sense, “overcomplicating things”.

“If there are only three or four candidates that you like, and you are genuinely passive about the rest, you are totally free to just cast 1, 2, 3 or 4 and feel like you’ve done your duty, put it in the ballot box and walk away.”