So we had the local and European elections on Friday and as I type, they are still counting the votes!!! I have to admit, I don’t know the first thing about politics and usually have no interest at all, but I found myself on Saturday and Sunday watching my Twitter timeline for voting news and updates.

I was fascinated with the lengthy process that involved a lot of sorting, then counting, re counting and counting again and in Waterford City and County it took almost two days to sort out the local election results.

After staring at candidate faces on the huge amount of campaign posters on poles, railings and trees for what seems like forever, I found myself with an appetite to follow the proceedings and see who was getting in, with how many votes and after how many counts.

What made it different for me at this election was Twitter. People were tweeting updates and photos as they happened from counting centers allover Ireland. Candidates and their teams were busy scribbling down the numbers, then tweeting photos after each count so we could follow the progress.

The twitter banter was contagious and adictive. Darren Skelton @Deiseupes from the Waterford News & Star tweeted stats, news and photos from the Waterford counting centre in WITwhile RTE South East correspondent Damien Tiernan @damienrte tweeted photos and news from many different counting centres, as he ran from one to the other. 

Other interesting tweeters on the weekend were Edrina Briscoe Conway @EBriscoeConway, Eddie Mulligan @MulliganEddie,  Niall Kelly @nkay1985, Waterford News & Star @WaterfordNS, Liz Reddy @Lilyreddy from WLRFM, Mary Roche @maryroche and the Munster Express @munsterexpress. Thanks everyone for all the tweets and for keeping me entertained.

See …..  if we had electronic voting machines, we would miss out on all this excitement!!! 😉

Caricature about not forgetting to get out and vote

Use your voice, use your vote

Frame your guests messages with a caricature guest signing board