10.40am - Kyne remains in front.....for now
As tallying continues, Fine Gael veteran Sean Kyne remains in front, but there's still plenty of unknown road ahead.
It's predominantly city boxes opened so far, with a smattering of Connemara in the mix, and Sean Kyne is sitting on 19 percent first preference votes.
Independent Ireland's Noel Thomas is on 16 percent, with Labour's Helen Ogbu close on his heels at 14 percent.
Independent Mike Cubbard is on 10 percent; while Soc Dem's Mide Nic Fhionnlaoich and Sinn Fein's Mark Lohan are both on 7 percent.
Independent Tom Welby has enjoyed a slight surge, now standing at 8 percent.
Fianna Fail's Cillian Keane is struggling to make headway in comparison to Government counterpart Sean Kyne, at this point claiming just 7 percent of first preference votes.
There are of course many other candidates in this race, commanding between 0 and 6 percent of votes.
It can't be over-stated - these are unofficial tallies, and at this point more importantly, it's a very incomplete picture.
There's still many city boxes to be opened, and almost all of the boxes in the county still to go.
10am - Not so quiet on the Western Front
A decent crowd has already gathered at the count centre at the Galway Lawn Tennis Club as counting is well underway.
Galway West is famed for it's glacial nature at the best of times, and 17 candidates in the mix is very much a compounding factor.
But the pace this morning is brisk, and relatively low turnout yesterday will make things that little bit faster as well.
Early tallies at this point are not much of an indication as to who will ultimately claim the seat - but there's plenty of useful information to be gained all the same.
Tallied so far are 40% of boxes in Galway City Centre and Galway City West, and just over 20% of boxes in Galway City East.
Independent Mike Cubbard and Labour's Helen Ogbu are performing strongly as you would expect from these boxes -at 13 and 16 percent first preferences respectively.
But so too are political rivals and parochial neighbours Sean Kyne and Noel Thomas.
Fine Gael stalwart Kyne is surging ahead at this point though with 17 percent of the vote, with Independent Ireland's Noel Thomas commanding a respectable 13 percent.
Sinn Fein's Mark Lohan is lagging behind at 9 percent, as is the Soc Dem's Mide Nic Fhionnlaoich at 7 percent.
But there's still plenty more boxes to be opened from the city - let alone those from the county - before we'll start to get a handle on what the first count might look like.
9.30am - It's D-Day - or should that be G-Day?
Welcome to Galway Bay FM's live blog for the Galway West by-election with David Nevin, your one-stop-shop for the latest updates on the first by-election the county has seen in 50 years.
On that occasion, there were just five candidates though - a somewhat different political landscape to today, with a whopping 17 candidates in the mix to claim the political throne vacated by now President Catherine Connolly.
Boxes are now being opened, but no matter how fast or efficient staff are, the PR-STV system is a slow one by design - the perils of democracy.
But, while it'll be much later in the day before we have an official count, tallies will give us a broadly reliable indication as to what way the political winds are blowing much earlier in the day.
Of course, this will ultimately a transfers game and inevitably that means a few shocks and surprises along the way.
Some say there's only two or three candidates with a credible chance of taking the seat - others caution there's more than one dark horse in this race.
It could be Sunday before the victor is announced - and until then, from tallies, analysis, and counts, to photos, interviews and speculation, we'll have it all here live as it happens.
We'll also keep you up to date on what's happening in the Dublin Central by-election, which actually has a unique local twist this year given Cork man John O' Leary is standing in both Galway West and Dublin Central.
And for now, as things get underway at the count centre at the Galway Lawn Tennis Club, here's a reminder of the horses in this race.
Some of them will fall at the very first hurdle - but while there'll always be favorites, the sheer quantity of moving parts in this one makes it impossible to predict a winner with great confidence.
