A record number of people spoiled their vote in the presidential election, with close to 13 per cent of the total ballot deemed invalid.
There were 213,738 invalid votes, the highest number in a modern Irish election, as many voters expressed anger and frustration at the choice of candidates on the ballot and the exclusion of others.
The Irish Times conducted a call-out to hear from readers who had spoiled their vote, chosen not to vote or had voted for Jim Gavin as a “protest” vote.
Denis, Co Meath
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I am a lifelong Fianna Fáil voter but was disgusted when the leadership imposed [the] candidacy of Jim Gavin, who was not a Fianna Fáiler and the centralisation of power in Micheál Martin has disrespected Fianna Fáil voters totally and its elected reps.
I also disliked elected councillors/Oireachtas members blocking genuine candidates like Gareth Sheridan or Maria Steen. It didn’t feel like a choice for me … so for the first time in my life in any election, whether political, students union, trade union or even local community committee, I spoiled my vote as a protest. I’m beginning to feel like elected representatives have stopped listening to the people.
Helen Duignan, Dublin, an Aontú member who ran in last year’s local elections
Along with the rest of the country, I waited for the presidential nominations to come in. I was totally underwhelmed by most, if not all, candidates seeking election … I wasn’t particularly a backer of Maria Steen, as I didn’t get a chance to see what she was about, but I certainly thought the electorate should be given the opportunity to hear what she had to say.
I took a very dim view of the Independents who either refused to nominate an independent candidate or who tactically nominated her too late. It’s not something I’ll forget come the next Seanad elections.
When we were reduced to just two establishment candidates, I watched the first televised interview and completely lost interest in following the campaign. My algorithms, however, had other plans and I couldn’t open a screen without seeing Catherine Connolly doing keepie-uppies or shooting baskets or walking arm-in-arm with earnest young people singing Imagine on the streets of Galway.
How outspoken will Connolly be as president?
It all felt too orchestrated, too cynical, too in-my-face. She wasn’t getting my vote. Heather Humphreys was briefly a consideration, but only because she wasn’t Catherine Connolly. However, I couldn’t in good conscience back a Fine Gael candidate when the party had used the whip to deny us any real choice at all. In the polling booth on Friday, I still hesitated to spoil my vote. It didn’t feel like the right thing to do – but nothing Government or most of the Opposition parties did was right either – so Maria Steen got my number 1.
Anthony Kenny, Co Wicklow
Simon Harris’s diktat to Fine Gael county councillors to block any Independent candidates to get on the Áras ticket was the reason I spoiled my vote. It was a cynical move and denied the electorate a broader choice of candidate. I will never vote for Fine Gael again after this stroke and I am surprised he is not in the firing line for such a spectacularly foolish decision as leader of one of the main parties.
Seán Healy, Dublin
I chose to spoil my vote for a number of reasons. I made the decision to spoil [it] as soon as the threshold passed and Maria Steen would not be on the ballot. I felt that both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, while understandably promoting their own candidates, did a disservice to the public by gatekeeping the nomination process.
Furthermore, to have three candidates on the ballot, one of whom had withdrawn, while over 20 per cent of the public had expressed that they would have voted for Steen really accentuated the farcical nature of this process.
I am 36 years old and I have never missed, nor spoiled, a vote before. I see my vote as a way to be heard, rather than a means to choose somebody, and given that I felt neither candidate was my cup of tea, spoiling felt right.
I wanted to be part of the electoral process while staying true to my own values, which in this instance were to express my dissatisfaction with the process by which candidates get on the ballot, and to express an overall dissatisfaction with the performance of the Government of late.
Josephine Phelan, Co Laois
I could not vote for the Fine Gael candidate because Simon Harris actively blocked anybody else getting on to the ballot paper. He acted as the leader of a political party and not as deputy prime minister. Heather would have got my second preference if Maria Steen had been on the ballot paper. I couldn’t vote for Catherine as her views don’t align with mine.
Miriam, Dublin/London
Currently living in London, I still retain my vote, and I flew back to “spoil the vote”. I, among many, don’t believe the Irish people are truly represented by the political parties and have become embarrassingly woke with anti-Christian values. The presidential candidates did not represent all people or the Catholic values our grandparents and ancestors fought so hard for – to retain a faith life, now more important than ever.
Hence, my family would have voted for Maria Steen, writing her name on the ballot, or maybe another nominee, but we were similarly not given the choice of candidates who stand up for family and common-sense values. Ireland was once held as a beacon of light and hope for all nations, yet it has fallen so far, thanks to our politicians and promotion of secular popular culture.
Derek Reed, Dublin
It was my first chance to vote in a presidential election since becoming an Irish citizen, so I desperately wanted to cast my vote. As a socialist and member of the Green Party, there was no question that of the names on the ballot paper, Catherine Connolly would be my only choice. But I was incensed by her absurd, ahistorical comparison of German defence spending with Nazi Germany’s militarisation … attitude to Russia and the USA; and her Euro-scepticism. So, after much soul-searching, and for the first time in over 50 years of voting, I regretfully spoiled my ballot.
Greg, Dublin
I wrote “none of the above” on my ballot in Dublin Northwest. I was traditionally a left/centre-left voter, but I have been pushed to the centre by the highly eccentric identity politics of the left. There was no suitable centrist candidate. I never vote for the parachuted celebrity/media/sports candidate. I only vote for those with records of speaking and writing about and doing at least politics-adjacent things.
Mícheál Ó Flaithearta, Galway
I thought that the main political parties blocked potentially good candidates from being added to the ballot. I did not feel my political views were in any way at all represented on the ballot. As I could not get myself to vote for either Catherine Connolly or Heather Humphreys and as Jim Gavin was a lame duck anyway, I had two choices: either 1) not vote or 2) spoil my vote. I chose the latter.
Brighid, Dublin
I feel, and have felt, for quite some time as if I am invisible to the Irish political classes as a single middle-aged, middle-class woman. Neither candidate has anything in common with me or my friends, and neither espouses my ideal of working hard and looking forward to an easy retirement. Connolly is far too socialist in her thinking and Humphreys does not speak convincingly. So I exercised my democratic right to spoil my vote for the first and, hopefully, last time ever.
Declan Roche, Dublin
Government are out of touch. We should have had a bigger field of candidates. The Government stopped this happening. That is not democracy. [Micheál] Martin must go, his choice in Gavin was a disastrous mistake. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are out of touch. Immigration, housing and cost of living is what occupies a lot of people. When are we going to have an honest discussion on these matters?
