An award-winning online tally system, devised by staff from IT Sligo including Knockvicar native Padraig Harte, will be used for the first time in a General Election count when the country goes to the polls later this month.
The system, which makes the election tallies instantly available, was used in conjunction with Ocean FM’s coverage of Sligo’s local elections in 2014, and proved to be a big success. The information, which appeared in spreadsheet form, showed the tally of votes for every candidate in every polling booth across county Sligo.
Padraig, who is a lecturer in Software Development at IT Sligo, along with his colleague Edmund Gray, who is software architect, subsequently won an e-Government Innovation award for their pioneering work.
Explaining how the system works Padraig said “The online tally uses Microsoft Cloud Technology which makes the tally figures instantly available online. During the local elections two years ago, Ocean FM’s website was the portal for the online tally, and the election pages received thousands of hits.”
Media outlets and the general public will be able to access the tallies for the Sligo-Leitrim constituency online and in real time when counting begins in the Clarion Hotel, Sligo, on Saturday, February 27th, at 9am.