Massive logistical operation in place for General Election in Tipperary

The responsibility for the smooth running of the General Election on polling day this Friday and the counting of votes to oversee the election of candidates to two constituencies - Tipperary South and Tipperary North - lies with the County Registrar James Seymour.

Appointed seven years ago, James Seymour is the Returning Officer and he is overseeing his second General Election in that role.
The Nenagh native will have 800 staff to assist him in the election process in what is a massive logistical operation involving the entire county.

There are a total of 322 ballot boxes with two staff members, a presiding officer and a polling clerk, responsible for each box on polling day at the count centres located all over the country. Of that figure the boxes are evenly split between Tipperary South (160) and Tipperary North (160) and there is one postal ballot box for Tipperary South and one postal ballot box for Tipperary North.

Throughout the county, there are 155 venues where people will be able to cast their vote in the county that include secondary and primary schools, public buildings, community halls and in one private house in Coolmoyne outside Fethard where over 200 people will cast their vote.

“It is very unusual, possibly the only private house in the country at this stage to be used for this purpose. We try to use government buildings on the day but there was none available in the area as the local primary school closed down over fifteen years ago,” said James Seymour.
“The house owner Sean O’Donovan kindly volunteered, the house is wheelchair accessible and we are delighted to have it to use on the day,” he added.

There are approximately 1,000 special votes to be taken from patients in hospitals and residents in nursing homes and election teams have been collecting these votes since last Friday and were expected to finish on Tuesday. There will be an early start for staff on duty on polling day as they will be at each venue from 6am on Friday preparing the venue before it opens to the public for voting.

When voting is finished on Friday night the ballot boxes in both constituencies will be brought to the count centre in Thurles and will be under protection by the gardaí overnight until counting begins.
On the day of the counting of votes all staff are expected to be at the Presentation Secondary School count center in Thurles at 8am before the counting of votes starts at 9am.
James Seymour said that the count staff on the day will be evenly split between Tipperary South and Tipperary North constituencies.

There will be a dividing line between the counting staff for both constituencies and each constituency will be split up into the respective electoral areas in those constituencies.
If one constituency count is finished before the other some counting staff may transfer over if necessary.

Counting, he said, would continue as late as 10 or 11 o’clock that night if necessary. A senior management team would be in place at the table of each electoral area. The deputy returning officer on the day, Gerard Connolly will announce the results of the Tipperary South constituency while James Seymour will announce the results of the Tipperary North constituency.
James Seymour, a solicitor himself, will be assisted on the day by solicitor Deirdre Maguire.

The Returning Officer has also made arrangements for up to 50 members of print, radio, online, and broadcast media to attend on the day and the school management itself will look after all of the catering within the school on the day.
Admission to the count centre on Saturday will only be allowed by ticket only.
There will be no parking available in the school and members of the public are asked to park in the public car park in Mitchel Street.

There is now a cross-party tally in place and all political parties are invited to send in a representative on the team.
The work of that collective tally team will be available on tipperaryreturning officer.com on the day by scanning a QR code and the information on that site will be available on a screen in an adjacent room to where the count is taking place at the count centre.

The Returning Officer explained that there were a number of reasons why there was no count centre to be located in the Tipperary South constituency despite the county reverting back to two constituencies.
He said it was his duty to protect the integrity of the ballot box and to do that he had to have a good team around him on the day of the count.

“If the count staff was split I would lose half of the team. I also have a duty to do the count on budget.
“A second count centre would cost the taxpayer money and having the count in one centre saves tens of thousands of euros. Within six months the costs of the count will be audited and I have to stay within budget. I have to ensure value for money, it is hard to find suitable venues with catering and the appropriate security,” he said.