Elaine Mullally, the Laois woman who was a central figure in the Spoil the Vote campaign in last week’s Presidential Election, says that the significant number of spoiled votes shows “there is a cohort of people that are not represented in the country, that are not being listened to, that are not being heard”.
Across the country there were a record number of spoiled votes, 213,738 – 12.9% in total. That compares to 18,000 spoiled votes in the last Presidential Election in 2018, more than a 10-fold increase.
In Laois the spoiled vote figure was closer to 14%, with over 4,100 votes spoiled.
Ms Mullally, who is from Portarlington, was a founding member of Independent Ireland who later left that party and contested last year’s General Election in Laois as an Independent.
She was one of the key figures in the Spoil the Vote campaign on this occasion alongside the likes of Declan Ganley, Eddie Hobbs and Nick Delahanty, one of the Independent candidates who tried unsuccessfully to get on the ballot on this occasion.
Ms Mullally was a strong supporter of Maria Steen who got the support of 18 Oireachtas members, two short of the required 20 needed to be a candidate.
Maria Steen wasn’t involved in the Spoil the Vote campaign but her name regularly featured on the spoiled ballots, along with a variety of other messages.
“The reason I got involved was because we were being forced to pick between, now two candidates, but originally three candidates, to whom I can’t align with on any of them,” she said when speaking at the Laois count centre in Portlaoise on Saturday.
“Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are in government together and I believe that a lot of the crises that we’re seeing in the country at the moment are down to their politics.
“Catherine Connolly, who’s supposed to be an independent, has been backed by all of the left-leaning parties and then Sinn Féin jumped on board.
“So it just looks like the whole election has been curated to three candidates and I feel that there was a certain proportion of the country that didn’t have a voice, I being one of them.
“Yes, in the early stages I was helping to canvass for, to get Maria Steen, one of the nominees, or potential nominees, onto the ballot. It didn’t work.”
She said that like Gareth Sheridan, another Independent candidate who got the backing of two county councils, Maria Steen was blocked via the local authority route as well as falling short on the Oireachtas front.
“She was nominated in, I think, six councils, county councils, but was blocked by the Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin councillors.
“Predominantly, in past tense, the councillors wouldn’t, they wouldn’t block, they would abstain.
“I understand the theory of, well, why would they back someone? But let them through, for democracy, let them through and let the people decide. They didn’t do that on this occasion. And as a result, it was a very boring election.”
“I really wanted to vote,” she added.
“Like, I genuinely think that everybody should have showed up, no matter how fed up you are with whatever you’re seeing around you. So I just felt I want to use my democratic right, and I think everybody should, but who could I vote for?
“But at the end of the day, I just couldn’t, I couldn’t bring myself to vote for either of them.”
What does the volume of spoiled votes show?
“It shows, possibly, the government that there is a cohort of people that are not represented in the country, that are not being listened to, that are not being heard.”
As for herself, what are the political plans? In a little over a year she has helped establish Independent Ireland (and later leave), contest a General Election unsuccessfully in Laois and now play a prominent role in a ground-breaking Spoil the Vote initiative.
“It’s early days, let the dust settle after this and see how it goes,” she says, though acknowledges with no likely election of any type for four years, the opportunities are limited.
“I can’t seem to be able to get away from it, because it’s like there’s some kind of a drive or passion, and I just cannot stop doing what I’m doing.
“Not everybody agrees with me, and I completely accept that. And not everybody agrees with some of the stuff, but they agree with others. I completely accept that. I’m not out there to try and get votes for myself.
“I’m out there to try and give a voice to people who feel they’re not being represented.”
