Large number of spoiled ballots in Cavan-Monaghan

In Cavan and Monaghan, the story of spoiled votes in the 2025 presidential election is set to tell a quiet but revealing tale about protest and political mood locally.

While either Fine Gael's Heather Humphreys or Independent Catherine Connolly will make it to Áras an Uachtarain, there is a perhaps a more telling narrative at play- one that politicians of all colours should bear in mind when the next set of elections roll round.

Already, from boxes opened at the count centre at Ballyhaise Agricultural Centre, early tallies are showing a potential record number of spoiled votes.

During the 2011 presidential election, when Michael D. Higgins first won his seat at the Áras, the national conversation was dominated by the financial crisis and by the lingering shock of political upheaval. Across the country, just over 18,600 votes were declared invalid- roughly 1% of all ballots cast.

By the time of the next presidential election in 2018, the atmosphere had changed again. Michael D. Higgins, running for re-election, was elected against a backdrop of political fatigue, with turnout falling to one of the lowest levels in State history.

In Cavan–Monaghan it dropped even further, to just under 42% and when boxes were opened, local returning officers found 603 spoiled ballots among the roughly 40,000 cast- representing about 1% of the total, and mirroring the national average of roughly 1.2%.