I voti presidenziali viziati potrebbero raggiungere livelli senza precedenti, indicano i primi conteggi – The Irish Times
https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2025/10/25/spoiled-presidential-votes-could-reach-unprecedented-levels-early-tallies-indicate/
di Test_N_Faith
25 commenti
It seems like the campaign made its way off of social media.
One was eventually going to be able to do it.
Who is surprised? The nomination process has been shown to be blatantly rotten, having presented the Irish people with an insulting non-choice between two blancmanges.
This will make the Right look united, where as a nomination system that allowed 3 or 4 people on the Right onto the ballot would have seen them all do poorly.
There is more than a seed of dissatisfaction in a not so insignificant amount of people in Ireland who feel disenfranchised with the current political system.
We can’t have an honest discussion about the rate of demographic change without tarring people as far right, many people are dissatisfied with the level of current public spending, our judicial system is objectively failing due to a lack of prison space, housing crisis etc
All reflected in the low turnout, general apathy, spoiled votes and also likely somewhat in the support of Catherine Connolly as the non-government establishment candidate.
I know it is not a popular opinion here, but i do see the spoiled vote as a perfectly valid form of protest. I may not agree with the reasons, and have never resorted to spoiling myself, but it does show that they, at least, went to the effort of going to the voting booth.
It also provides a useful statistic on the level of discontent in the country.
By staying at home you would be just put into the category of couldn’t be arsed/don’t care and your inaction can be safely ignored.
I would also advise that we don’t know what the political sway of the country will be in 7 or 14 years time.
If, for example, the next election has only far right candidates on the ballot, will you be happy to be counted amongst the don’t cares, or will you at least go out to try make your opposition heard in some way?
Perhaps a ‘none of the above’ category could be added to the ballot.
Edit: seems it is a more common opinion than I may have initially thought.
People on here like to laugh at spoiled votes brigade, but it is clear now that this election is going to be a hangover for all involved.
Connolly is going to win knowing she is one of the least supported Presidents of Ireland, FF/FG are going to be asked what when wrong, SF is going to be asked why didn’t they run anyone?
Labour, SD PBP etc are going to be the happiest with the result but will have to deal with the disengagement from low turnout.
Surely the bigger story would be the number of people who just didn’t bother turning up and trying to get them to engage with politics and voting.
There’s definitely a push from certain groups this morning demanding that we pander to the loons spoiling their vote because their preferred candidate wasn’t elected.
It’s a slap in the face to the people who did turn up to vote legitimately, which is far more than the spoiled vote crowd.
Should have a ‘None of the Above’ and if that wins then add more candidates and go again!
“Its a wasted vote”, “No one will notice” well they are noticing now.
It’s presently an unprecedented presidency
Not every ‘spoiled vote’ was from the far right, mine included. I thought it important that my dissatisfaction with either Humphrey’s or Connolly as my choice of representative be counted. Your vote is your voice – as the electoral commission campaigned.
We’re just as stupid as Americans voted for the same two parties that hate them
Gavan Reilly on twitter:
>I reckon spoiled vote tracking at give or take 12% nationwide
Headline should be: left wing candidate wins by landslide. But no.
And they said nobody would read the graffiti on the spoiled votes. They were only wasting their time. Turns out we are witnessing the birth of a new political movement in Irish politics. It would be foolish to ignore these people who feel like they have no representation in the Dail. This could be the birth pangs of a more extremist politics if it continues to be ignored. It could also be the start of a move back to centrist politics more reflective of the concerns of the people.
Time will tell.
To be clear, I did not spoil my vote.
But I think spoiling your vote is a reasonable thing to do when you dislike all the candidates. Simply not voting can be seen as the voter not caring, but voting and saying none of the above is the only way to voice your dissatisfaction. The government won’t know how many people stayed at home because they just don’t care or the weather or whatever excuse they’ll blame for low turnout, but they will have to notice when spoiled votes come second in an election.
And to be fair, while the spoil your vote campaign was very much promoted by the right, I think people of all viewpoints spoiled their votes. Over the course of the election, I’ve talked to many people and the most common viewpoint was that the choice of candidates were poor and they didn’t like any of them
I will say that it’s very impressive how quickly the media made the spoiled vote thing a major focus of the postmortem.
Not the left unity thing, not the overwhelming support for Connolly
Not the disastrous showing by Fine Gael, their terrible campaign, the behaviour of Jennifer Carroll McNeill
Not jumbo Jim, Michael’s piss poor judgement, divisions in FF reading historic proportions.
No, it’s wankers who spoiled their vote is the real story. That protects the status quo
So much to think about in the split votes phenomenon. One thing (not the most important, but significant, I think) that I have been thinking about is how much of a push this has received in legacy media. I was really surprised to see the number of spoilt ballot sheets posted on The Journal, Irish Times, Independent etc., as well as the amount of air time in news coverage in recent days about it, too. There has been a lot of discussion in the UK and across EU countries about the role of legacy/mainstream media in platforming and fuelling the right and far right (which I think broadly captures the spirit of the spoilt vote movement). I think there needs to be a lot more reflection on how to better handle this in Ireland, too. At the same time, I think legacy/mainstream media are driven by clickbait and were always keen on finding some kind of spectacle in this election, and they leaped at the chance to promote spoilt he vote as such. I think that is a shitty way to do politics, but legacy/mainstream media both tends to lean right and rarely acts in public interest. But then also, there is the enormous role of wildest social media where the usual grifters have been allowed (and encouraged!) to proliferate misinformation and disinformation, all of which have been crucial to promoting the spoil the vote movement. I think media is only part of the story, though an important part. There is a clear authoritarian turn in some corners of Irish society, fed and buoyed by a whole range of national and international currents, all of which mainstream politics has not and is not able to address in any meaningful way.
Unpresidential levels
And people will still be here screaming Russia is THE ONLY threat when MAGA/USA ideologies have caused devestating effects to our society and democracy. Ireland was never racist or extremist (to this level) and now look. Genuinely don’t recognise this country in ways anymore.
Anyone who’s on TikTok sees the nutters in comment sections on any Irish video. It’s festered for years. I think many thought because of the last GE results, and us bucking the trend of electing far right politicians, we avoided it but clearly not. FFG continue to do nothing.
It’s where these people are being brainwashed into thinking the right or people like Maria Steen would advocate for them. All stemming from mainly US and UK content creators who don’t care about them. They just don’t want progressives in power so they divide and conquer.
It’s really sad. The left parties like Social Dems could actually enact change that would benefit many, yet these nationalists would rather cut their nose off to spite their face because they don’t like black or brown people being treated the same as them.
Catherine Connolly is the perfect remedy to this mentality. That’s a very welcome silver lining to this news.
If Humpty Dumpty won, FFG’s RTE mouthpiece would downplay the number of spoiled votes. But because Connolly won, RTE will cover the precise number of spoiled votes with forensic detail.
The choice was between a tankie and a fox hunting supporter. No real choice for sensible people.
It is a form of protest. The idiots here who say it’s the same as not voting are wrong.
Reporting the spoiled votes as a percentage like this is nonsense.
You can’t have 107.8% of votes. Spoiled votes are 0%
Or if they want to include spoiled votes as a percentage of all ballots, adjust all candidates percentages accordingly. Otherwise it’s pointless
https://preview.redd.it/9gwzjygls9xf1.png?width=1068&format=png&auto=webp&s=ad710b5de0f21bc1696df5dcebfba528eb25d538
After a week of advocating on behalf of Irish rough sleepers I would have set the paper on fire. The country is rotten to the core.