General Election 2024: Voter turn out in Longford is varied

The Longford polling stations have opened their doors.

Kicking off at 7 am, the voting centres throughout the town have seen a mixed turnout.

The weather seems to have deterred some people from heading into the centres just yet but many of the clerks are optimistic hoping that as the day goes on, more people will be braving the elements and casting their vote.

One of these voting centres is St Joseph’s National School. 

In Booth 1, Martina Kelly and Margaret Mulligan were the voting clerks on the desk.

“We’ve seen 68 voters,” said Martina

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In total 9.5% had turned out to vote by 11:55 this morning.

Over in Booth 2, they had seen much less.

The clerks on the desk said, “It’s a very small per cent it’s very low.”

“You’re looking at about 5 or 6%,” they explained. 

Booth 3 saw a bit more success with 80 voters which tallied up to 9% of their expected turnout.

“They’ll come later at lunchtime and after work,” said voting clerk Caroline Burgen.

The Ballot Sheet seemed to have received some mixed opinions from the Longford electorate.

“They’re surprised at the length of the ballot for a general election,” said Caroline.

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“The last one was the local election and we had the European election, the European ballot was long.”

In Booth 1 they hadn't received complaints about the length but it was however a large talking point.

Across the other side of town on Battery Road is St John’s National School with two voting booths.

The smaller number didn’t dissuade voters however as the centre had received a great turnout seeing a steady flow of people throughout the day.

In Booth 1 the two clerks told the Longford Leader about how they were doing.

“The Polls are open till 10 today and a lot of people are working.

“It’s been steady but slow,” said the voting clerks.

Booth 1 had seen a turnout of around 16% of their expected number. They had also heard a lot more about the length of the ballot sheets.

“They’ve said they didn’t realise there were going to be 20 candidates, they’re asking do they need to fill in all of it.”

Booth 2 was also seeing a very busy day with a massive amount of voters by noon.

“Out of the total here that can vote 135 have voted so far so that’s very good,” said the voting desk.

Out of the total that was expected Booth 2 had almost reached 20% with a whopping 19.3% of the electorate having shown up.

Like next door, they expected to see more people coming out as the day went on and people were leaving work.

In regards to the ballot sheet, they had seen their fair share of commentary but no complaints.

“We hear people talking about it saying “Oh God it’s a long one,” said the voting clerks but other than that they didn’t see anything else.

All in all the turnout has been varied but expected to increase as the day goes on.