Adrian Kavanagh, 10th March 2011
Tally figures are being/have been published in a number of local papers in the weeks after the 2011 General Election, but which ones?
I love tally figures! My love of tally figures is greater than the love of Cyprus/Greece for giving Greece/Cyprus douze points in Eurovision and of referees for giving Man Utd. penalties in games… Tally figures are the lifeblood of the many people (OK, just me! And of course, Claire McG!) engaged in electoral geography research in Ireland. I love the vast array of numbers, the fact that you can get in-depth grasp of candidate’s local bailiwicks, political party vote management strategy and indeed work towards generalisations as to what was happening nationally – all of which can be provided in just two or three pages worth of glorious detail in certain local newspapers. And of course these tallies allow us to produce voting maps that can display parties/cansdidates’ vote spreads across constituencies! For fellow tally hunters, these are the local newspapers that have published tally figures in week or weeks following General Election 2011:
2nd week after the election: Wicklow People, Drogheda Independent
1st week after the election: Donegal Democrat, Donegal People, Longford Leader, Westmeath Examiner, Westmeath Independent, Sligo Champion, Leitrim Observer, Roscommon Herald, Connacht Tribune, Western People, Clare People, Clare Champion, Limerick Leader, Kerry’s Eye, Kerryman, New Ross Standard (as noted by Ciaran Lyng)
Day of count! Mayo News (as noted by Fergus Kelly) while The Athlone Advertiser (as noted by editor, Maria Daly) put tallies online on the day of the count.
(NB: I am missing out on papers at the moment/have wrong titles in some cases as I’m just typing these “from memory” at the moment, I’ll tidy up this list later!!!)
There is an interesting geography at play here – local papers in the west ususally publish in-depth tally figures in the week immediately after the election, local papers in the south and east are less likely to publish tallies alhtough some do and usually do so in the week after the election!
Reader(s), if you know of any other papers that publish election tallies, please note this in the comment box below and I’ll send the bloodhounds out to chase up these papers! 😉
Irish Elections: Geography, Facts and Analyses 
The Mayo News – http://www.mayonews.ie – published the FG tally figures for the Mayo count at lunchtime on the day of the count
Crikey, I was wondering why Mayo News didn’t have tallies in edition I picked up on Monday as usually a reliable source, but this explains that! Am impressed by their speed and dedication – even though it meant I missed out on their tallies edition! 😦
The New Ross Standard (which is part of the People Newspaper Group, so presumably also the Wexford People) published the Wexford tally the week after the election. Made for some very interesting reading.
Gah! I missed out on that one Ciaran! Thanks for letting me know!