One of the defeated Presidential Candidates is unable/unwilling to make a choice between the 2 remaining Candidates. He says he will waste his vote rather than back either one as an Act of Resistance … and is calling on his supporters to do likewise…
Certainly, he has the right to Vote however he chooses, but this seems highly irresponsible to me.
This is so important… surely a choice needs to be made…???
I agree, defaced or blank votes are ultimately a vote in favour of the winning party. He’s a fool to think that a blank vote is a protest … it’s just like a sulky child refusing dinner and ultimately punishing himself.
I was talking to a French cousin this week and he was suggesting that, as he sees it, as the final choice is yet again between two candidates that 80% of the population don’t want or support then something like a blank vote is necessary to highlight the failings of the system. It would be a vote against the two tier voting system more than a vote against the candidates themselves.
Unfortunately, highlighting the “faults” only plays into the hands of the Winner…as has been mentioned above.
Throughout Life… an Adult may face difficult choices … difficult decisions needing to be made.
France has 2 candidates. I hope all Adults will behave responsibly and use their Vote wisely. 'Nuff said.
I’ve always advocated the system that is used internally by the Green Party. Even if there is only one person standing for a position they are alway up against RON, ReOpen Nominations. If the Vote Blanc was counted as that then if enough people used it neither candidate would get in & the process would need to be done again. It would be a massive incentive for politicians to please more of the people rather than, as in some cases, a rather niche & shortsighted populist outlook.
Looked at another way, this is the “none of the above option” that is often talked about.
Agree with you Stella, thought I would share this as a picture is worth a thousand words (sometimes) and this says it all !
Thanks Ann…
All I’m asking (in friendly fashion)… is that Voters… do make a choice between the 2… and do NOT ruin/waste their Votes. 
We’re going to end of up one of the two… so let’s make the best of it… rather see someone romp home by peoples’ choice, than by lethargy/abstention.
I agree with youStella. I will vote for Macron on Sunday even though I do not agree with his programme.
I’ve been saying for years that an alternative to “wasting” your vote, voting “blanc” or voting tactically would be to be able to use your ONE vote as a vote of VETO: that is to say that if there’s no one you feel you can vote FOR, then you can use you ONE vote to SUBTRACT a vote from the candidate that you think is the worst.
Here’s post I made elsewhere.
Vote tampering? Yesterday, less than 24 hours before voting started I received my voting pack. Three packs arrived in total; one for me, one for JC and one for his son who doesn’t live here but hasn’t bothered to organise a change of address. Inside each pack are two vote slips, one for Macron, one for Le Pen. Each slip for Le Pen had been tampered with rendering it invalid. Strangely, each slip for Macron was in mint condition. It was no error. You could see the form of a thumb where the right top corner had been ripped off by hand. Slips are rendered invalid for the smallest mark, rip or wrinkle but JC said only a third of people would realise a missing corner would render their vote invalid. Yes, you can get a fresh slip at the Mairie but if you don’t know your cornerless slip is no longer valid you won’t look for another slip. Three out of three packs tampered with is no mere chance and given what’s been going on during the campaign there must be a few left-wing fonctionnaires working overtime to influence even 1% of the vote. What an undemocratic place.
Actually Frances… I doubt you will have received the voting envelope itself…our Mairie re-uses them time and time again… you will certainly have received slips for each candidate… to ensure that you know who is Standing…there is no onus on the Voting Slips being nickel… that is the responsibility of the Mairie.
The official voting envelopes, plus slips for all candidates, are placed, readily to hand, near the Privacy Booths at the Polling Station. (I have known very, very few who come in waving bits of paper at the ready…)
Folk just help themselves to whatever slips they want, grab an official envelope and enter the Booth to do whatever…
No-one knows what is actually inside the envelope they subsequently deposit in the Ballot Box… until the Count… and then we can have quite a surprise… toilet paper amongst other things… 
You only get the slips with the candidates’ names on ahead so that you can do a really good, artistic & witty bit of defacing, I think. I always just use the slips in the polling station…
No worry there Frances, there are loads of slips at the polling station and those are the ones we all use - and we all know about their needing to be immaculate. Surely you weren’t thinking of voting for Marine anyway?!
Hi Veronique, no I didn’t vote for Marine but there are people out there who might not be aware that a corner missing would not be alright and would not take a fresh one at the Mairie. Frankly, I have to wonder at the morality of those responsible for tampering. It’s new to me.
I really don’t think it would be tampering as such, more likely ripping a packet open carelessly. As we all know the ‘proper’ ones await us at the mairie I expect the people who pack them are a bit careless sometimes. I didn’t get a Macron one in my envelope, 2 MLPs instead. The other 4 voters in my house got the expected slips. Really we DO know how voting works here, it is drummed into us at school voting for class delegates etc, the system is exactly the same.
Do you really believe that there is vote fixing at your local Mairie? Carelessness perhaps but to suggest anything more on that evidence is a bit extreme.
Perhaps your local office will find your comments unacceptable.
http://www.survivefrance.com/t/legal-advice-queries/12628/74?u=aquitaine
In reality, it’s almost impossible to rig the vote at the Mairie level, there would have to be a lot of people involved.
Quite right Mark…
I love the way it is all so transparent… and everyone watches like hawks…
