Presidential Election 2011 The Who? Where? What? & How?

What's happening? On the 27 th of October 2011 the ‘people’ of Ireland will vote to elect the 9 th President of Ireland. Who were the other 8?

So who’s running?

How will the country decide who the new president will be?

We’ll have an election

Can everyone VOTE? No. You have to tick a few boxes

You have to be Over 18

Your name has to be on The draft Register of Elections. This is a list of names and addresses of everyone in the country eligible to vote

October 27 th 2011 Election Day (Many primary Schools close) People go to the Polling Station.

What happens in a polling centre? You Vote! The Presiding Officer (person in charge) will give you a ballot paper. This is a sheet of paper with the name, details and picture of each candidate on it. Beside each candidate is a blank box

This is a simple ballot paper.

You take your ballot paper and cast your vote. Voting in a presidential election is by secret ballot on the principle of proportional representation (PR), each elector having a single transferable vote. Yes we need to explain a few things but ….

DON’T WORRY It’s really quite simple. Lets take it step by step.

Cast your vote You vote for candidates in order of preference. You mark the ballot paper by putting 1 opposite the name of your first choice candidate and, if you wish, 2 opposite the name of your second choice and so on.

Why do we vote 1,2,3.. And so on What you are saying is: "I want to vote for candidate A. If the situation arises where A does not need my vote because he/she has been excluded from the count, I want my vote to go to candidate B." And so on.

This is complicated why not just 1 vote? This system gives you a wide degree of choice. You can choose between candidates of different parties or non-party candidates and you can order your preferences, as you wish. This system makes sure each vote cast counts Only one of the preferences in your vote is active at a time. The vote stays with your first preference candidate unless and until he/she does not need it any more (because he/she has been excluded from the count). If your vote is transferred, it passes to your next highest preference for a candidate still in the running. Your vote could transfer a number of times at the same election to your lower preference candidates.

Casting your vote is easy! Counting the votes is a little more complicated

‘The Count’ Opening the ballot boxes Each ballot box is opened separately and the ballot papers in each box are counted. The number of ballot papers in the box has to be the same as the number of ballot papers the presiding officer gave out. All the ballot boxes from all over the country are opened, checked and the number of votes cast is counted up to get the ‘total poll’

The ‘total poll’ This is just a complicated way of saying: EVERY VOTE CAST DURING THE ELECTION

The tally men/women While the votes are being sorted and counted specially appointed people called tally men take note of the first preferences and count them up. Remember doing tally’s in maths. This gives people an early idea how the election is going.

The First Count! All the ballot papers are mixed up and then sorted into groups (not counted yet) according to the number 1 vote (first preference) Some of these groups will be very big. Some will be very small.

The Quota This is the number of votes a candidate needs to get to be elected. In a presidential election with only one job to be filled it’s easy to calculate. It’s half the total poll and add one (Total poll ÷ 2) + 1 = QUOTA

All the votes are counted! It’s very unlikely that any candidate will reach the quota and get elected on the first count so what happens? Next step … wait for it… The second count

Someone must be eliminated! The candidate with the lowest number of first preference votes (number 1’s) is eliminated. This means they are out of the election

Transfer of votes! This is where the proportional representation system comes into its own. All the votes of the eliminated candidate are examined. Any vote that has a number 2 opposite a candidate (a second preference) is now given to that candidate. If there is no number 2 the vote is left to one side

And….. All the transferred votes are added to the existing votes and once again the returning officer checks to see if anyone has gone above the quota. If they have well then they are elected If not, you guessed it… Off to the third count

Someone else must be eliminated! The candidate with the lowest number of first preference votes (number 1’s and extra number 2’s) is eliminated. This means they are out of the election

Transfer of votes! All the votes of the eliminated candidate are examined. Any vote that has a number 3 opposite a candidate (a third preference) is now given to that candidate. If there is no number 3 the vote is left to one side

Are we getting the picture? The same will happen for a fourth and fifth count unless a candidate doesn't reach the quota When there are only two candidates left the one with the most votes is deemed elected even if they don’t reach the Quota.

And the winner gets