Tallymen

In the 43 multi-member constituencies across the country, activists known as "tallymen" and women stand on the other side of the tables where officials sort and count ballot papers. ❋ Michael White (2011)

He had to attend two meetings in the week, just on the other side of the court -- summer meetings, where a friendly party of five or six 'tallymen' dozed at ease under the warm glass. ❋ Alphonse Daudet (1868)

The counting started at 9.00 and the Nos are daring to hope as the famed Irish tallymen report many working class and rural areas voting against Lisbon. ❋ Unknown (2008)

As the ballots were sorted for the first count, the tallymen those for Fianna Fail being the most experienced & accurate not only tallied the number of 1st preference votes, but also got a good look at the 2nd & 3rd preferences. ❋ Unknown (2007)

Almost all the commentators wrote Cyprian off at this point . . . except for a few wise old tallymen who knew the score. ❋ Unknown (2007)

It was a part of a grocer's sugar bag, written upon in the coarse black crayon used by the tallymen on the quays at Kingsbridge. ❋ John Masefield (1922)

At the mill-dock a big steam schooner and a wind-jammer lay; in the lee of the piles of lumber, sailors and long-shoremen, tallymen and timekeeper lounged, enjoying the brief period of the noon hour still theirs before the driving mates of the lumber-vessels should turn them to on the job once more. ❋ Unknown (1918)

You can read how the party "tallymen" do their job here . ❋ Michael White (2011)

Only when the contest gets down to the "bear pit" stage, where tallymen fight over every "transfer" - votes reallocated for 2nd or even 8th preference - to win the last available seat, do tempers fray. ❋ Michael White (2011)

In the Naas area of the KCC elections, FG candidate Anthony Lawlor leads the poll after the tally, with 2,036 recorded by the tallymen. ❋ Unknown (2009)

_e. g._ on medicine, or in habitual pawning, or in purchasing from tallymen, or in buying things not wanted? ❋ Mary Ellen Richmond (1894)