Independent candidate Catherine Connolly has secured a landslide win in Ireland’s presidential election, taking more than 63% of the vote, compared with 29% for rival Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys.
While the size of Connolly’s victory was remarkable, one of the other notable aspects of Friday’s ballot was the number of spoiled votes.
A record number of people chose to spoil their votes in the election, with close to 13 per cent of the total ballot deemed “invalid”. There were 213,738 such votes, the highest number in a modern Irish election.
This followed highly motivated online campaigns from various groups mobilising the electorate to cast their ballot with a spoiled vote. These organised campaigns were said to be one reason why turnout increased in this presidential election, from 43.87 per cent in the 2018 contest to 45.83 per cent this time around.
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The Irish Times is interested in the motivations of voters who spoiled their votes, to help readers understand the phenomenon. Did you spoil your vote? If so, why? Did you give your number one to Jim Gavin despite the fact he sought to withdraw from the election? Or did you choose not to vote at all?
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