Election candidate who claimed she saw ballots 'torn out' of boxes loses court case

High Court reporters

An unsuccessful Kerry general election candidate who went to the High Court claiming voting ballots were allegedly “torn out” of boxes at a polling station in Kerry on election night has failed in her court bid.

Michelle Keane had sought access to sealed documents after alleging she witnessed ballots being removed from boxes in front of her on voting night.

Ms Keane, of Talbot Bridge, Knocknagoshel, ran as an Independent candidate in Kerry in November.

She claimed to have allegedly seen ballots taken from boxes in front of her. She sought an order from the court to have the marked register of electors, which shows who voted, released to her and to halt the destruction of election documents.

Ms Keane received over 1,500 first preference votes but lost out on the eighth court before Independents Michael and Danny Healy Rae, Sinn Féin’s Pa Daly and Fianna Fáil’s Norma Foley and Michael Cahill were elected.

At the High Court last week, Ms Keane submitted an ex parte application – where only one side is represented – naming the Clerk of the Dail, the Irish Government and Returning Officer Padraig Burke as respondents.

Ms Keane told Mr Justice Garret Simons that she was seeking documents “in the public interest and for democratic transparency and accountability and electoral fairness” under Section 130 and 131 of the Electoral Act 1992.

Mr Justice Simons asked if Ms Keane was seeking to set aside the election result in Kerry and was told that it was one of the aspects of her application.

In her affidavit, Ms Keane claimed she was in the Toureencahill polling station at around 8.45pm on the night when she allegedly witnessed two election staff "tearing out ballot papers from the ballot box" and that she was the only other person in the room when this happened.

In his judgment on Tuesday, Mr Justice Garrett Simons said Ms Keane was out of time as the election had been declared on November 30th, 2024, but the application to leave was not moved until March 7th.

The judge said Ms Keane had sought to challenge the result of the election in Kerry but that this had a time limit under the Electoral Act 1992 of 14 days from declaration.

"Accordingly, leave to present the election petition must be refused," said the judge.

Ms Justice Simons said it was apparent from Ms Keane's draft election petition that she was aware of the cause of her complaint on the evening of the poll of November 29th, 2024, but her application to the court was "some two to three months after the time limit had expired".

"This is not a case where it is alleged that there had been concealed fraud which only came to the attention of a proposing petitioner subject to the expiration of the 14-day limit," said the judge.

Mr Justice Simons said Ms Keane had been "entirely unsuccessful" in the proceedings and "did not resolve any point of law of public importance".