Local elections are a bit like football matches you’re either into them or you’re not. The thing that matters at the end of the day though, is the result but getting there can be torturous and can also take a long time.

So it is with the counting of the Louth votes. It may be the wee county but the counting of the votes in the Louth local elections is turning into a marathon.

All of the votes cast yesterday in both the local and European elections, were brought to Colaiste Chuchalain in Dundalk overnight where they were separated into separate piles and sorted this morning.

The European Parliament votes were sent to Castlebar for counting and the Local election votes were sent to County Hall in Dundalk and the counting is just starting now (6.30 pm). It's a slow process!

There is however a special breed of  people in this world who just love this sort of thing. They used to be called tallymen, and most of them are indeed men, but let’s call them tally people jst to be PC, and they do their own count by looking over the shoulders of officials as they sort the papers.

Amazingly they’re usually very accurate and the following are what the tally people are predicting for Drogheda:

Drogheda Urban

1. Pio Smith (Labour) 1195 votes – 13%
2. Kevin Callan (Independent) 1057 votes - 12%
3.  Joanna Byrne (Sinn Féin) 943 votes - 10%
4. James Byrne (Fianna Fail) 864 votes - 10%
5. Paddy McQuillan (Independent) 755 votes - 8%
6. Ejiro O’Hare Stratton (Fine Gael) 623 votes - 7%
7. Shona McManus (Fine Gael) 567 votes - 6%
8. Debbie McCole (Sinn Féin) 435 votes - 5%
9. Michael O’Dowd (Aontú) 409 votes - 5%
10. Frank Godfrey (Independent) 332 votes - 4%
11. Clinton Sinn Fein 310 votes - 3%
12. Patrice Johnson (Irish Freedom Party) 298 votes - 3%
13. Emma Cutlip (Labour) 272 votes - 3%
14. John Bannon (independent) 182 votes - 4%
15. Thompson (Sinn Fein) 180 votes - 2%
16. Alan Fagan (Independent Party) 172 votes – 2%
17. Michael Kennedy (Green Party) 161 – 2%
18. Peter James Nugent (Independent) 145 - 2%
19. Morgan (Independence Party – 87 votes - 1 %
20. Vincent Hynes (independent) 63 votes – 1%

Drogheda Rural

1. Michelle Hall (Labour) 1367 votes - 22%
2. Ann-Marie Ford (FG) 1039 votes - 17%
3. Declan Power (Ind) 831 votes - 13%
4. Eric Donovan SF 696 votes - 11%
5. Cunningham Tom (SF) 637 votes - 10%
6. Tomás Wilkinson (FF) 412 votes - 7%
7. Patrice Johnson (Irish Freedom Party) 341 Votes - 5%
8. Frank Godfrey (Independent) 315 votes - 5%
9. Anthony Murphy (Green Party) 235 votes - 4%
10. Mick Martin (Independent) 165 votes - 3%
11. Marian Agrios (Fine Gael) 103 votes 2%
12. Derek McAlarney (Independent) 79 votes - 1%