Thousands of EU citizens went to the polling station on 23 May 2019 and saw their names crossed out. Equally, British citizens abroad waited in vain for their ballot papers. They all have as much right to vote as you do, and they need your support. We have witnessed one of the largest systematic and openly discriminatory denials of the right to vote.
Our right to vote is a fundamental right in a democracy. the3million and British in Europe want to hold the Government to account and we need your financial support to do it.
Hopefully, Brits who Reside in countries other than UK… did get themselves on their local Voting Register.
Certainly in France, the Deadline for Registering was 31 December 2018… but was moved to 7 May 2019 (?), in order that no-one need miss out on Voting in these European Elections.
I’m certainly interested in the possibility of Voting in any future UK Referendum.
Little question here for you Stella, I of course will be voting tomorrow but have only received 14 of the candidates papers as has everyone in our commune.
I thought that all candidates had to fairly represented, I know that all the papers (?) should be there tomorrow and will dive in for them so no one knows how I voted.
Has your commune received and distributed all the papers ?
Hi Ann… you will have received Lists and Descriptions… but NOT the Ballot-papers…
EDIT: This is what I have been told by an Adjutant, but I’m not so sure, since she never even opened her post to read all the political bumpf.)
Tomorrow… at the Polling Station… Ballot-papers will be available… pick the one of your chosen Party… pop it (unmarked) into the Voting Envelope provided… then go and vote as per we have already discussed…
Funnily enough I was reading an article about this in Paris Match while I was at the hairdressers this afternoon.
Apparently there are so many random parties on the lists this time, and a lot of them know they have no chance of getting their 3% below which they have to bear all the costs themselves, that some simply can’t afford to get papers printed.
Plus it’s causing a prolblem for a lot of communes finding billboard space and table space for all the different candidates.
But hey that’s democracy.
Can’t remember everything I read but there was one maire of a very small commune who was at his wits’ end and eventually he solved it by using both sides of his billboards.
Our cantoniers fixed hard-sheets (of whatever) in between the usual billboards and we all crossed our fingers that the strong winds would not make the lot tumble.
In the past, the billboards would be along the wall, but with so many, this year it is impossible to have them there.
Yep. Another thing a lot of maires were annoyed about was that they are obliged to put all the posters in their allotted spot, so if parties don’t provide a poster they have to leave lots of empty spaces while at the same time putting up extra billboards.
That’s the case here - there are about as many empty spots as there are posters.
Anna… actually, I think it is up to each Party to get their Poster stuck in “their numbered position” on the billboards… and yes, we have several vacancies.
One of our Posters is on the blink and I would have expected our cantoniers to have remedied that if it had been down to them. They are very conscientious.
It seems reasonable that ALL Partied have a space. By issuing numbers there is no squabble about who goes where.
Voted this morning, only 18 ballot papers were available. Seem a bit undemocratic when there are 34 candidates.
The mayor did say that papers could be downloaded from internet and used … Not come across this before and how about those who don’t have acess to computers/printers?
In any case the papers I wanted were there so no problem for me but has anyone else had this?
If papers can be downloaded then why not go a step further and have online voting based on your fiscal number ?
For the elderly and those who have no acess, then of course continue voting at the town hall…thoughts please !
I’ve just got back from doing my stint at the Mairie, yes, only 18 papers, and quite a low turnout - about 30% when I left (for local and national it’s usually over 50% by 1pm).
What I don’t really get is the total secrecy, people take all 18 papers, put one in the envelope and the other 17 in their pocket, not the bin - no one cares who people vote for, and certainly no one is going to go through the bin to see who they didn’t vote for.
When I got there, this morning, I was advised that the word “had come down from way up high” that folk only needed take 2 papers and Secrecy would still be maintained.
I only threw one paper away and thought about all the trees I was saving (not). Perhaps France will come up with another solution for next time.
