As one of the least inspiring presidential elections limps to a close, a significant number of people still feel they have no one for whom they want to vote.
While spoiling your vote as a protest is tempting, it is also pointless. Spoiled votes are rarely subjected to systematic analysis, much less any kind of count showing how many votes were spoiled by writing in the name of a candidate.
The idea that a large number of spoiled votes will be embarrassing to the Government assumes that politicians have a capacity for embarrassment.
The Fine Gael response to a trouncing in the last two referendums was not to be embarrassed, much less to learn anything. It was to appoint the director of elections for those two failures as their presidential candidate.
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It’s hard to spoil a vote when you remember how hard women like Mary Hayden and Mary Gwynn fought to get one. Some will choose to abstain instead.
There is, however, another possibility. Voters in this election have the option to express their disapproval of the exclusion of other candidates by voting for Jim Gavin.
Like many, including the man to whom he owed overpaid rent, I feel sorry for Jim Gavin, dragged well out of his depth by a Fianna Fáil leadership desperately seeking an ABFF (anybody but Fianna Fáil) candidate. Nonetheless, he is on the ballot paper and cannot be removed.
As a tactic, it will only be effective if people put a 1 beside Gavin and then stop. Don’t add a number 2; by transferring a vote, you aid another candidate.
[ Explainer - Can Jim Gavin become president?Opens in new window ]
These votes for Gavin have to be counted. It is an imperfect mechanism, to be sure. But in a situation where the major political parties covertly or overtly instructed their local authority representatives to block alternative candidates, people feel driven to drastic measures.
The chance of enough people voting this way to trigger another election is slight, but it remains a clear protest vote.
How to disentangle those voting for Gavin because they are staunch Fianna Fáil-ers fed up with an autocratic leadership from those who would have voted, say, for Maria Steen or another candidate?
Does it matter? These votes all stem from the same root: people who feel stonewalled and unrepresented.
Some people have lobbied against this move because it will allow Fianna Fáil to claim its electoral expenses. But if sufficient votes are cast to allow that to happen, retaining the electoral expenses will be the most Pyrrhic of victories for Fianna Fáil.
There is a bigger problem. Even if a new election were triggered, nomination of candidates would still happen through the same flawed mechanism. (See lack of capacity for embarrassment above.)
Whatever happens in the current presidential election, reform is long overdue. Several steps are necessary. If you feel you have no one to vote for in this election, let political parties know.
[ How much will Jim Gavin’s failed presidential bid cost Fianna Fáil?Opens in new window ]
Write polite, firm, well-reasoned emails or letters to party headquarters. If you have the energy to go to a polling station merely to spoil a vote, channel your energy into this instead.
More importantly, politicians rely on short memories. At the next local, general and Seanad elections, remember those candidates who facilitated democracy by supporting alternative candidates, even when they did not fully support their political agendas.
Peadar Tóibín played a vital role in securing Steen’s 18 votes from Oireachtas members. His decision to create a nomination caucus was innovative and daring.
Without his political capital, or that of independents like Carol Nolan TD, Independent Ireland, and others, even fewer representatives would have supported her.
We have a stagnant political system, and the only way to revive it is to vote for candidates who support real alternatives.
The second step of the reform is the presidential nomination process itself. Add a paragraph to your email to political parties strongly requesting reform.
[ The Irish Times-Ipsos B&A presidential poll 2025: the full results in chartsOpens in new window ]
Political scientist Michael Gallagher has outlined a possible mechanism that would prevent political parties from blocking candidates who would threaten their monopoly.
Gallagher proposed that a potential candidate should have to get the backing of a percentage of 5 per cent of city and county councillors, which, at the present number of councillors, would be 48. He suggested that these councillors should come from at least eight different councils.
The number of required councillor votes should be sufficiently high to prevent messers, and low enough to allow serious candidates a chance.
It might also be possible to include MEPs among those who can nominate presidential candidates alongside Oireachtas members.
These modest tweaks would require a referendum. The problem is that these proposals will run into the very same obstacle that candidates attempting to secure a nomination did. These changes are not in the interests of major political parties and are therefore likely never to be implemented.
It is not just caution about introducing any referendum after the defeat of the 2024 Family and Care Referendums. It is a real fear that alternative candidates could get elected.
In the short-term, consider plumping for Jim Gavin. It beats spoiling a vote if you want to send a message of change to the major political parties.
