The votes for this year’s Local and European Elections in Laois will be sorted in the sports hall in Scoil Chríost Rí on the Borris Road in Portlaoise.
The Local Election votes will then be moved to the Civil Defence building (formerly Ging’s) in Kea Lew Business Park where they will be counted.
The European votes will be brought to Castlebar where that count is on.
Scoil Chríost Rí is a new location for the ballot boxes to be opened on Saturday, June 8.
In 2019 that was done in St Mary’s Hall with the votes then counted in a warehouse in Kea Lew adjacent to where this year’s count will be on.
Donal Brennan, who is a Director of Services in Laois County Council, has been confirmed as the Returning Officer in Laois, as he was at the last Local Elections in 2019.
The ballot boxes for the three Local Election areas will be opened by Rory Hanniffy, County Registrar, who is also the European Returning Officer for Laois.
In a letter to confirmed to the 47 Local Election candidates, Donal Brennan said the ballot boxes will be opened at 9am.
He adds that he expects to receive the votes “at approximately 6 o’clock”. The counting of the votes will then formally start.
In 2019, the first announcement of a first count didn’t come until 7pm on Sunday and the count finished close to 11pm on Monday. On this occasion there are 47 candidates, compared to 39 five years ago.
SEE ALSO – Check out all our 2024 Local Election coverage here
