Brought to you in association with People First Credit Union
The day has finally arrived. The doors have been knocked on, the pledges made and the votes cast.
Local and European candidates can do no more but sit and wait for the tallies to do the rounds and votes to be counted.
Almost 63,000 people are registered to vote across Laois. Nineteen seats are waiting to the filled with 39 candidates standing across the county.
In Laois, the three electoral areas are marked out as; Portlaoise, Graiguecullen-Portarlington and Borris-In-Ossory-Mountmellick.
With fewer than ever candidates putting themselves forward for local elections across the country this year, the Graiguecullen-Portarlington Municipal District certainly fits that trend with just nine candidates set to contest the six available seats.
Meanwhile, the Portlaoise Municipal District bucks the trend with 16 putting themselves forward this year.
In the Borris-in-Ossory Municipal area, there are 14 candidates contesting the six available seats.
While the local election votes were cast, the European election nominees will also find out their fate.
The Ireland South constituency, of which Laois is a part, has the highest number of candidates who will contest the European Election.
A grand total of 23 men and women will go for what is now 4 MEP places – that will increase to five when the UK leaves the European Union.
With three different things to vote on, it is interesting to see where all of these sheets of paper actually end up.
Once sorted, the Local Election and the Divorce Referendum votes will be transported to Powerpoint Engineering in the Kealew Business Park where counting will start at 2pm.
Meanwhile, the European Election votes will be transported to Cork for counting.
