A bluffer’s guide to the voting system

WHEN you go to the polls today you are sending your vote on a long and winding journey and its destination largely depends on your fellow electors.

Ireland’s voting system means you get one vote, but that vote can be passed down the line to count for different candidates according to your preference. Although you only get one vote, you are in effect helping to elect three, four or five deputies per constituency.

Confused? You might well be.

To begin at the beginning: you mark your ballot paper in descending order of preference, giving a number “1” to your first choice, number “2” to your second and so on.

What you are in effect saying is: “I want my vote to go to my first choice candidate but, if he or she gets enough votes from other voters, then I’d like my vote to go to my number two preference, and so on.

On the ballot paper you can mark a preference for as many candidates as you wish, but you don’t have to put a number next to all of them. And there can be advantages in expressing preferences for certain candidates on the ballot paper and leaving blank the box next to other hopefuls.

So when your voting paper is counted:

All the slips are sorted, with any spoiled papers disregarded.

The returning officer does the mathematics to work out what is known as the quota that any candidate needs to win a seat.

Ballot papers are counted for the first time and candidates are ranked according to how many number one votes they got.

If any candidate hits the quota or exceeds the number, he or she is elected and any votes in excess of this quota are then shared among the remaining candidates at a second count.

If no candidate achieves a quota at the first count, the candidates with the fewest votes are eliminated and their votes shared out in the second count.

This process of sharing out votes continues until all seats in the constituency are filled.

According to elections expert Simon Devilly, this system allows electors to vote for different parties, vote on different issues and vote for different candidates at the same time.

Your vote will only count once but for whom it will count depends on 1) how you rank the candidates in descending order and 2) how all other electors vote.

Hence, though you gave Sean Citizen your number “1”, you could find your vote may count for Sheila Citizen instead, though she was your third choice.

Additionally, if there were candidates you did not wish to see in the Dáil you can frustrate them so: express a preference in descending order for all other candidates on the paper, remembering to leave blank the boxes of your despised candidates so your vote will not help them.