A word of advisory was given by the returning officer for Mayo county, John Condron, to the counting staff at TF Royal Hotel and Theatre, during the early hours of Saturday. Reports of a mouse infiltrating a Mayo ballot box the preceding Friday night had emerged, with the creature’s status still a mystery. Despite the vote counting for the local Mayo elections continuing throughout the night, the elusive rodent had not been located by Sunday evening.
Unexpected items discovered within ballot boxes are a signature feature of election periods, including unique finds such as miraculous medallions, mice, and more.
On Saturday, at Salthill, the counting staff could be seen investigating a ballot box from the Gort-Kinvara LEA, in a quest to find a misplaced diamond amongst the cast votes. Presumed to have been lost by an elector while she was voting, the valuable gem remained undiscovered at the time of this report.
Vote casting proved exorbitantly expensive for one voter. Unfortunate history was made in the 2019 local elections by the candidate for Galway City Council, Patrick Feeney, who received a solitary vote. Despite this setback, Feeney braved another attempt in the recent elections and achieved a score in double digits in the Galway City Central LEA. Regrettably, with a total of 13 votes, he remained at the bottom of the pile.
Marian Agrios, a former local election candidate for Fine Gael, who requested the public not to vote for her, surprisingly accrued first preference votes. Agrios withdrew from the Louth County Council race last month following allegations of receiving large monetary sums for withdrawing opposition to a housing development near her residence. According to a spokesperson for Fine Gael, Agrios’s actions were below the expectations of a Fine Gael candidate. This scandal forced Agrios to dissuade potential voters from casting their votes for her, even though it was too late to officially withdraw her candidacy from the Drogheda Rural LEA ballot paper.
Not everyone was successfully informed, resulting in her gaining 105 initial-choice votes.
Lengthy Ballot Paper Causes Stir
The ballot paper for Midlands-North-West, stretched to a considerable 73cms, sparked a great deal of controversy, including provocative comments by Mayo TD Michael Ring comparing the 27-name ballot paper to lavatory paper, labelling it as outrageous.
As the evening drew in, journalists in Castlebar, as they eagerly awaited the outcomes of the first count of the constituency, mused about the number of Midlands-North-West polls required to reach the lunar surface.
A Success in the Family
Labour’s Nessa Cosgrove celebrated her victory in Sligo, following her brother Shane O’Callaghan’s top position for Fine Gael in Cork South Central the previous day.
“We have an excellent relationship,” she quipped. “It’s quite nice to have a companion to discuss politics with, as it’s a topic most people veer away from.”
In other news, Fine Gael’s 24-year-old Britto Pereppadan secured a win in the ninth count for Tallaght Central. His father, Baby Pereppadan, had previously won in Tallaght South during the day in the sixth count.