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TODAY IS THE day. The public are going to the polls for the 2020 general election… the first general election of 2020, some might say.
But let’s see how today goes – your first concern is getting yourself to a polling station and casting your vote.
Here’s everything you need to know.
Before we get into it, there are a range of supports to make sure voters with certain disabilities can cast their ballot
Full details are available here on Citizens Information. This ranges from ensuring wheelchair access to having the presiding officer assist you.
It is too late to facilitate some other arrangements – such as a postal vote, or changing your vote to a different polling station.
Wait, really?
Haven’t you heard? The Dáil was dissolved on 14 January after Taoiseach Leo Varadkar decided it was time to go to the polls. The last time we had a general election was 2016.
That rings a bell. Now, who will I vote for?
That’s up for you to decide, and to help, we’ve put together this candidate database. We listed every candidate in every constituency, and asked them three key questions, to help you make your mind.
Wow. There’s a lot of candidates.
531, to be exact, running for 160 seats (including two extra seats compared to the last Dáil).
When do polling stations open and close?
They open at 7am today, Saturday 8 February, and close at 10pm tonight.
What do I need to bring with me to the polling station?
Your polling card, but you don’t need it as long as you’re registered to vote. You should bring it if you have it, as it will help speed things along.
You won’t be turned away if you don’t have it.
Bring ID, as in every polling station a certain number of voters will be asked for some form of ID:
What happens once inside?
Hand your polling card to the polling station staff, or give your name and address. They will tick you off a list, and give you a ballot paper.
You’ll be directed to a polling booth.
Fill in your ballot, fold it, and then pop it in the ballot box as directed by staff.
Hey… So what if I walk right in there with a load of leaflets for my favourite candidate and start canvassing all the voters?
Basically, don’t do that.
It’s illegal to display or distribute campaign material, or canvass in any manner, within 50 metres of a polling station from 6.30am until 10.30pm
Loitering and congregating with other persons is also prohibited, so get in, vote, and get out.
How do I fill in the ballot paper?
The most important thing is to only use numbers. No Xs, no ticks, no phallic symbols, or else you run the risk of spoiling your vote.
Write a 1 beside your first preference, write a 2 beside your second preference, and so on and so forth.
If your first preference is elected or eliminated, your vote will move on to the second preference you gave, and so on.
Do I need to give every candidate a preference?
Eh, that’s a tough one. You don’t have to. You vote for as many or as few candidates as you like.
Some argue that you should fill in the entire ballot paper, as there is a chance, however small, that every single vote will count.
Another argument is that you first ask yourself, which of these candidates do I absolutely not want to see elected? Give a preference the people you want to represent you in Dáil Éireann, and also the people you could stomach holding that position, but leave blank the ones who you really and truly do not want to see elected.
It’s up to you. Read everything you need to know about it here.
I can’t wait to take a selfie in the polling station!
Please don’t. You should also avoid talking to anyone aside from staff in the polling station, as the staff have to make sure that no canvassing is taking place in the station.
Just get in, vote, and leave. Don’t act the maggot.
I saw a Bible in the polling station. What was that about?
If there’s any doubt as to your identity, you may be asked to swear on a Bible or affirm.
Repeat after me:
I swear by Almighty God (or — do solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm — as the case may be) that I am the same person as the person whose name appears as [your name] on the register of Dáil electors now in force for the constituency of [location] and that I have not already voted at this election, and that I had attained the age of eighteen years on [date of coming into force of the register].
I’m not on the register of electors. Can I still vote?
No.
If you’re in any doubt as to whether you’re included, go to CheckTheRegister.ie. You can also go your polling station and ask, but if your name’s not there, you will not be allowed to vote. It’s as simple as that.
If you were registered to vote after the local and European elections back in May, you might not be on the register. Here’s why.
What’s going on with Tipperary?
A question mark was hanging over this constituency all week. The death of candidate Marese Skehan lead to questions about whether the vote should – or could, legally – go ahead.
The relevant minister signed a special order on Wednesday allowing for the vote to go ahead.
This is a complex situation, and it’s likely that we haven’t heard the end of it yet but it’s important to stress polls will open as normal today at 7am and the election will proceed as usual.
And the islands?
More than 2,000 people living on the islands off the coasts of Donegal, Galway, and Mayo voted yesterday, with the help of ferries and helicopters to bring ballot boxes to and from the remote areas.
There had been plans to pass legislation to change the practice and to ensure island voters go to the polls on the same day as the rest of the country. This didn’t pass in time for the election.
Isn’t the weather meant to be a bit rubbish?
Yes, and you can thank Storm Ciara. Met Éireann issued a Status Yellow wind and rainfall warnings for the entire country, later adding orange warnings for Galway, Mayo and Donegal.
Active Retirement Ireland is encouraging the public to help their older neighbours get to their local polling station if adverse weather conditions prevent them travelling alone.
When are the votes counted?
Once polls close, the votes are transported to the count centres dotted across the country. Counting begins on Sunday morning.
When will we have a result?
How long is a piece of string? You can expect the first counts to be announced in or around 2pm, and with that we might see the first TDs elected.
By that evening, it will start to become clear who the big winners and losers are.
When you wake up on Monday, a significant number of the seats will have been filled.
However, some counts will drag on into next week.
Who’s going to win?
Eh… no one, probably. If you believe the opinion polls, no one party will be able to form a government.
Wait hang on, what happens if there’s no clear winner?
Parties will start scoping out each other for coalition, like Fine Gael and Labour in 2011. Another option is a confident and supply agreement, like Fine Gael obtained from Fianna Fáil in 2016. Fianna Fáil supported Fine Gael or abstained in crucial votes, such as motions of confidence and budgets. Fine Gael also enlisted the help of a scattering of independents to make up the numbers.
But that’s not easy…
Nope. The Dáil with convene and try to vote for a taoiseach. This went on for a while even in 2016.
If no progress is made, the previous taoiseach from the previous Dáil (in this case, Leo Varadkar), will make another trip to the Áras and ask President Higgins to dissolve that Dáil again.
If only there a way to stay up to date with all this.
Well, he have some good news. We’ll be covering all the latest results on TheJournal.ie - with liveblogs, reporters roving count centres, a special late night edition of The Explainer, easily accessible results – all the available bells and whistles, really.
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A country living in the Stone ages.
@Davy Evans: would you give over. For God sake, people love moaning.
There’s challenges in this industry & people don’t want to work there. It’s tough in times of bad weather in the good times, but with people just constantly giving out and media needing to fill their websites to get clicks, it exacerbates the problem and has a negative sentiment against those that work in the industry. Sometimes this negative sentiment can manifest itself in physical harm and/or abusive language directed at them. All they are trying to do is to earn a living.
Anyway, rant over. Cheerio.
@Andy O’B: oh come on! Most European countries have much worse weather for much longer periods and continue to function…a smattering of snow and a bit of frost and Dublin airport is paralysed! Ridiculous!
@Andy O’B: I agree, most other countries face delays and cancellations when faced with weather events and deicing of aircraft is essential as is safe runways and taxiways and ramps and during falling snow this can be hard. As I write Manchester seems to have issues and maybe some of the cancelled flights could be due to other airport’s issues. Ireland is the great land of knockers unfortunately. What about a headline saying 143 flights managed to get into and out of Dublin airport despite snow and ice and limited viability… Is it too much to ask to be positive? It is a mindset
@Davy Evans: ya know where the airport is then.
@Ronan Skelly: kinda supporting Andys point there, most European countries which have “much worse weather for longer periods” are far more experienced and equipped to deal with such conditions.
@Ronan Skelly: you read my mind dead right
@The Divils Avocado: Yes, but they also have staff to work….Airlines at Dublin are operating with a minimum of staff members in all positions…
@Aidocasey: It’s just like hospitality. Any industry demanding a lot of staff regardless of footfall just cannot strike the balance. If you have 1 passenger, you need pilots, stewards, ground crew, mechanics, sales teams, fire crew, atc, security staff, airport police, check in and boarding staff etc etc. To pay all these people the high wages needed to attract and keep staff, particularly in Dublin where the rental and housing market is insane means the DAA and airlines need to increase landing fees, terminal fees etc, passed onto the airlines. Then the cost of air fares will rise so less people will travel on holidays or leisure travel. There will be less people travelling so there won’t be enough budget to employ the staff and the vicious circle continues.
@Andy O’B: I’m not completely disagreeing with you, but if these major well off companies treated their staff a bit better and didn’t pay minimum wage, these services would be 20 times better. The gap between the rich and the working class (never mind the gap between rich and poor) is getting out of control.
@Andy O’B: he didn’t say anything about the workers at the aerport…he just said basically as a nation we are way behind in some services…
@Aidocasey: that’s a management problem
@Davy Evans: Hop on the next available flight then why don’t you
@Johnny Kelly: The answer is not to run away. Stay and try change things.
Such a shock, we have never seen weather like this before.
Manchester Airport is closed, so the problems don’t just happen at Dublin.
@Dave Byrne: Suppose if Dublin is closed people can always fly to one of our other international airports
every time it snows a little there is this chaos. will they never learn
Copenhagen Airport is at freezing point and operating normally, including Ryanair flights. Yet Dublin Airport are putting the blame entirely on airlines like Ryanair for lack of provision of de-icing. DAA provides the permits, infrastructure & space for systems to operate or not. Why are airlines facing issues at DUB when central northern & east Europe can operate reasonably smoothly? We have systems not been tested periodically since October in preparedness? Same old, same old “we couldn’t have foreseen it” excuses will be forthcoming or the “we rarely need it”. We are of a latitude of clashing weather fronts, inevitably our share of icing days. De-icing needs to be provided close to take-off before it loses affect, DAA need to provide areas close to runways for these ops.
How come other European countries can manage this and here it’s like the end of time. Can’t get there act together like they never knew this was coming and guess what we are in winter
@John Quinn: 400 years of oppression and poverty have stunted our ability to develop anywhere near the same level as the imperial Euros. Ask people if they would rather have an international airport or €20
I lived in Reykjavík for four years,often traveling to England to visit family. I never once had a cancelled flight. The buses ran on time too.
I was one of the lucky ones with only a 3hr delay to Edinburgh, Ryanair communication horrendous, people flying to Brussels at 8am still in the terminal 7 hours later and their flight was probably cancelled after all, they were sitting in the plane for 4 hours then told to get a coffee and stretch their legs for 45 mins, most frustrating, customer service dropping calls, sole attendants getting it in the neck from irate passengers.
How come other European countries can manage this and here it’s like the end of time. Can’t get there act together like they never knew this was coming and guess what we are in winter
How can there be a big knock on, flights into Dublin were cancelled and there were a lot of them.
The Bottom line is the Airport is an absolute disgrace to let this occur. Airports around the world run on temperatures a lot lower than we experienced.
So who is at fault my Daughters flight from carcassonne was cancelled and airline said not their fault hotels, car rental all lost
@James Johnson: It is not the airport’s job to make sure the airlines planes are in a condition to fly. The airport did their job and it was fully operational. It is the airlines job to have their planes ready to fly, but they did not. The airlines failed in their job. There’s an awful lot of people complaining about the airport even though it is 100% the airlines who failed.
Took us 8 hours to get off yesterday. Which I could deal with even with a small baby but it was the lack of information that was frustrating. We were stuck on go to gate for the entire day and nobody had any info if our flight would be going at all. Multiple different flights also directed to go to the same gate at same time didn’t help either. It was a mess.
@Sean Partidge: we were delayed too then we sat on the plane for a further 3.5 hrs and eventually took off but the provisions on board were insufficient , plane full of hungry people with food for less than 1/4 . No water either . The food trolly started selling the meals at first few rows and ran out but the children on flight were further down the back and got nothing ! A tub of pringles or a bar of chocolate after waiting to depart at 1:30 pm and finally arrived at destination at 11pm !
How come other European countries can manage this and here it’s like the end of time. Can’t get there act together like they never knew this was coming and guess what we are in winter
@John Quinn: You obviously don’t read or watch tv… Dublin Airport is not the only airport suffering..
Liverpool also closed !!
500 million profit for Ryanair this year and they Fail to Hire enough de-icers for their fleet during the Winter months to me is a sackable offence.!!
Wouldn’t happen in Cork Airport
FFS
The DAA strike again, made all their gritting crews redundant last year, expected local farmers to provide gritting machines & they didn’t turn up!
No frost in Dublin this morning. A balmy 2°
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