COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF TALLAGHT AREA COMMITTEE

Monday, March 25, 2019

QUESTION NO. 10

QUESTION: Councillor C. O'Connor

To ask the Chief Executive if he has had any contact from the County Sheriff giving details of plans for the Election counts in this County following the Elections and any Referendum to be held on 24th May next; will he give details and make a statement.

REPLY:

Update regarding the Elections

In relation to the forthcoming Local Elections in May the following information will be of interest to Members.

The European Elections and a referendum shall be taking place in conjunction with the Local Elections. The County Sherriff is responsible for conducting the European Elections and the referendum. As the ballot papers for both elections and the referendum will be mixed together in ballot boxes, the County Sherriff will have responsibility for the segregation, tally and distribution of the three papers.

The County Sherriff has determined that the opening of ballot boxes will take place in the RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 on Saturday 25th May, commencing at 9:00a.m.

The Local Government Election ballot papers shall be opened, counted and verified at this location and then transferred to the local count centre for sorting.

The local count centre for the 3 Dublin counties will be the Citywest Convention Centre.

The Chief Executive has appointed Lorna Maxwell, Director of Services, Corporate Affairs & Governance to be the Returning Officer for South Dublin County Council.

It is anticipated that South Dublin County Council’s Returning Officer will take delivery of ballot papers mid to late afternoon/early evening on Saturday 25th May at which time the Deputy Returning Officers will commence sorting ballot papers according to first preference.

Given the likely start times, it is planned that the count process will continue until approximately 12:00 midnight and then re-commence the count on Sunday 26th May at 9:00am. It is anticipated that most, if not all, counts should be completed on Sunday however the City West count centre has been booked for Monday to allow for any extended counts / re-counts should the need arise.

The normal arrangements around entry to the count centre and corrals will be in place ie –

• Entry to the count centre shall be controlled by the County Sherriff.
• Entry to the South Dublin corrals shall be secured by South Dublin staff. The Returning Officer, Deputy Returning Officers and authorised count staff are the only persons with an entitled be allowed to enter the count areas. For obvious reasons it will be necessary to have strict controls in place.

Planning for the election is ongoing. This report is presented for your information only and is for noting.