More than one in six spoiled their Presidential vote in Offaly

The percentage of spoiled votes in Offaly was the highest outside Dublin in last week’s Presidential election.

Some 17.6% of those who went to the polls in the county registered invalid votes, official figures show.

That’s the highest percentage of any constituency outside Dublin and the fourth highest in the country, after Dublin North West (20.5%), Dublin Mid West (20.2%) and Dublin South Central (19%).

In Offaly, of the 27,632 votes cast, 4,870 were deemed invalid, leaving a valid poll of 22,762. Nationally, the invalid votes accounted for 12.9% of all votes cast.

Otherwise, the election results were broadly on par with those nationally.

In Offaly, 62.56% of the valid poll was for Catherine Connolly, 28.96% for Heather Humphreys and 8.47% for Jim Gavin.

This compares to the national total of 63.36% for Connolly, 29.46% for Humphreys and 7.18% for Gavin.

Turnout in Offaly was 44.65%, compared to 45.83% nationally.