French first - but a re-check underway; 12 councillors re-elected so far
Trim's Noel French romped home to be the first man elected to Meath County Council this evening, with a massive vote tally of 3,052 - which was 1,501 votes over the Trim electoral area quota of 1,551.
However, arising from the counting of his surplus, 97 of Fine Gael party colleague Joe Fox's number ones were found in French's total, which would also have deemed Fox elected on the first count - he had 1,474.
The council has decided to proceed with a complete recheck of all papers in Trim, "in the interests of accuracy and transparency".
In Ratoath LEA, Damien O'Reilly (FF) topped the poll, with independents Gillian Toole and Brian Fitzgerald also elected on the first count, followed by Nick Killian (Ind) in the second, while Tommy Reilly was elected on the first count in Navan. In Laytown-Bettystown, Sharon Keogan (Ind), Sharon Tolan (FG) and Paddy Meade (FG) were elected on the first count, while FF's Sean Drew and FG's Sarah Reilly have been elected on the first count in Kells. Independent Joe Bonner has topped the poll in Ashbourne, with Alan Tobin (FG) also elected, and Sharon Keogan on course to take a second seat here.
Keep updated: https://www.meathchronicle.ie/news/roundup/articles/2019/05/26/4174697-le19-vote-meath--the-story-so-far-live-updates/