Voting will soon be underway in the Northern Ireland Assembly election. I’ll be posting updates throughout 5 May. (Northern Ireland is five hours ahead of Eastern time in the U.S.) Email subscribers only get one notice, so be sure to check back. Most recent items appear at the top. MH

Image from the Belfast Telegraph.

• Polls closed. Counting begins Friday morning. First results by Friday afternoon. Cute BBC video explains the Single Transferable Vote system.
• The Belfast Telegraph reports that in the 2011 Assembly election more than 12,000 ballot papers were rejected as “spoiled” – many because of a more complex system than is being used today.
• “The sun was shining in most parts of the region as polls opened … with the weather set to remain fair for the rest of the day,” The Irish Times reported in a story about NI leaders casting their ballots early in the morning.
• Two hundred and seventy-six candidates are competing for 108 seats across Northern Ireland’s 18 constituencies. Coverage from the BBC.