"This morning, we had 1 vote in one hour!" Below average turnout at Longford Town polling booths

Voter turn-out for the presidential election has so far been relatively low in Longford Town, with one poll clerk even remarking at how they'd had just 1 voter in 1 hour this morning.

While the voter numbers are low overall, it was described by one as being "steady", and by another as being "better than expected."

The polling stations in St Michael's National School on St Mel's Road had an average of 12% turnout while the nearby station in St Josephs saw an average of 10% in turnout. 

While this evening and tonight are expected to fare somewhat better in terms of numbers, as is the norm, it is still anticipated that numbers will remain steady but low.

In St Michael's, where there were three booths with two clerks per booth, the average percentage turnout for the three by lunch time today was 12%.  

The polling clerks of one booth in St Michael's, Peter Creamer and Colm Murtagh, said the turnout at their booth alone was around 9%.  

Explained Mr Creamer, "Normally around lunch time, you would expect it to be around 10% or thereabouts so it's a little bit below average. It's low but that's normal enough for a presidential election."

Added Mr Murtagh, "It's not as bad as they were thinking it would be." 

Another polling clerk in St Michael's said of their booth, "We're gone up to 13% now. I've done it every few hours, and we were at 4% at 10am, 8% at 12 midday, 12% at 2pm, and now we're at 13%."

The polling clerk at the third booth told The Longford Leader that their figure for percentage turn-out was, "roughly 12%" adding that it was "not a bad turnout" as they'd been "expecting it to be so quiet today."  

Meanwhile in another polling station nearby - St Joseph's National School in Longford Town - where there were two booths, a clerk said they had seen a percentage turnout of 10% in their room. "It's getting a bit busier now that it's lunch time but its been more or less quiet enough," they said.

At the second booth in the school, clerks Martina Kelly and Margaret Mulligan (pictured) also calculated a percentage turn out of 10%.  

Polls will close at 10pm tonight.