Voter numbers see evening increase

Ballyhaise is the home town of presidential hopeful Sean Gallagher. Seven years ago he lead the field with 48 hours to go.

Things have changed this time around. There is little of the trappings of an election on the run in to St Mary's National School. No posters, no bunting, nothing but the simple POLLING STATION STÁISÚIN VÓTÍOCHTA placard outside the school to suggest this is anything other than a normal Friday evening.

As six o'clock rolled around there were only five cars in the car park and two pedestrians making their way in the exercise their franchise. Staff at the Booth 1 had the slightly busier day. With just 27% of the 474 votes cast it has not been a hectic day, but the post work voters start to stream through the class room doors to collect their papers, tick the boxes and post them in the ballot box.

“We did expect it to be busier today,” one invigilator says “there hasn't been much of a fuss. It's picking up now,” they comment as people file in.

Booth 1's list of voters runs to 550 names, 20% have been through the doors to make their mark. The evening voters chat in the queue as they prepare to collect the voting papers. Talk of the referendum lacks any real spark with comments centring on the lack of coverage for what was at stake.

One way or another in 24 hours the will of the people will be made apparent. The six o'clock spike has to continue for some time for the voter turnout figure to improve, but with four hours left it looks as if this could be a particularly poor showing.