5:06PM · 25 MAY 18

Source: Sam Boal

You’ve cast your vote today. And counting starts tomorrow morning.

So what happens to the votes in between?

The national returning officer Barry Ryan has been giving an insight into what’s involved in the count tomorrow, and told RTÉ Drivetime that the ballot boxes are stored overnight in local count centres. The local returning officers are in charge of securing the boxes overnight, at the 26 count centres across the country.

The opening of the ballot boxes begins at 9am tomorrow, and once the contents of each ballot box has been verified, the counting begins.

There are 40 constituencies – just like the Dáil election constituencies – and the results from all of these are sent the central count centre.

But what time can we expect the result to be announced? “It’s always difficult to be absolutely precise on timing,” said Barry. He did point out that the result of the marriage referendum was announced just before 7pm in 2015, but there have been others made earlier in the day (and there were two referendums that day).

“We really have to wait and see,” he said. So for now, it’s still a waiting game. He also noted that if the turnout is high, that can affect the time it takes to count the votes.