The election was conducted under the single transferable vote.

Since the 1999 European Parliament election, Ireland's entitlement had fallen from 15 seats to 13 seats due to European Union expansion and some constituencies boundaries and names were changed.

Voters received different-coloured ballot papers for the European election, city/county council election, and a constitutional referendum, all of which went into the same ballot box and were separated by colour once the boxes arrived at the count centre for the city/county.

Not all voters received all ballots as the franchises differ.

For example, the East ballots were counted in Navan, County Meath.