Each vote, valid and invalid, has been rechecked

THE recheck of ballots in Dublin South East has involved a painstaking examination of each of the 36,671 valid and 361 invalid votes east.

The ballots remain in the bundles they were in at the end of the 11th count last Sunday morning. By then the votes of eliminated candidates had either been assumed via transfer by the elected or surviving candidates or were in separate piles to note they had not transferred on from the last recipient.

During the recheck, every ballot paper was turned over by the counting staff in sight of the scrutineers of both parties. The papers were placed facing the scrutineers and the 10 counting staff proceeded as slowly as the onlookers wished.

With 14 candidates on the ballot paper (including the names Gorman and Gormley), establishing that votes were transferred correctly was among the more time-consuming tasks of the checkers.

For example, at least one of Quinn's transfers to Gormley showed the Green candidate given 11th preference out of the 14 candidates; but because the only other candidate left by that count

McDowell was placed 12th, the transfer rightly went to Gormley.

All queried votes were "tagged" with adhesive yellow notes. This was done at the parties' request, even though the objections might be spurious. For instance, one ballot which was tagged had preferences 1 to 14 clearly noted, but with an X added after each one. This was irregular but is unlikely to be deemed invalid.

The recheck ended yesterday evening. By last night representatives of both parties and senior count staff were poring over the hundreds of tagged votes at a table in the count hall. Even if their final adjustment does not change the position of Gormley and McDowell, a major change in the calculation of the quota could still necessitate a full recount.