I have just heard that there is “possibly” a prolongation… allowing folk to get themselves on the electoral Roll at their Mairie…for this year’s Elections.
Seems that some folk may be on the “Local Election” Register for the Communes … and NOT on the “European Election Register”…
Normally, the cut-off date is 31st December the previous year… BUT… if you have any doubts, please check at your Mairie that you are on BOTH Registers…
The European Elections are this year… and I would hate anyone to miss out by default…
@Jane_Williamson I thought of your conversation with the Maire, when I heard this news today…
I thought there was only one register - I’m sure I only registered once, and i definitely voted in the Europeans last time around (didn’t really know who I was voting for though, beer drinking party with any luck🍻)
Mark… when you originally registered… they probably “did you” for both sorts of Elections…
Sadly, some folk only registered for one…
Before Christmas, I accompanied Brits to the Mairie… and I can confirm… there are 2 Registers… (in fact 3 Registers… but non-French cannot vote in the Government elections… hence we talk about 2…)
this was the topic of discussion today at the Mairie, as it had been discovered that a local Scottish gentleman was only registered to vote in the Local elections… and someone was sent off after him… to try and get him registered in time for the Europeans later this year… I saw him driving by, but he just answered my rather frantic wave with a toot-toot…toot
Un électeur européen a seulement le droit de voter en France pour les élections européennes et les élections municipales.
Pour pouvoir voter, il doit demander à être inscrit :
sur les listes électorales complémentaires pour les élections européennes et municipales
ou seulement sur la liste électorale des élections européennes
ou seulement sur la liste électorales des élections municipales
I’ve got my Irish passport handy and my voting card. Been through the candidates and worked out who won’t get my vote on Sunday. Still recall the first time I voted and the official called out « Gustave Morris a voté ». My neighbours applauded!
Crazy! And multiplied across every elector in every EU country! Surely they could have put this online with paper copies at libraries and town halls for those who have no internet access?
There is a neighbour I dislike intensely. He swaggered into the vote bureau, ostentatiously picked up Marine le Pen, rassemblement national, paper and squeezed into the booth to vote. Everyone else either brought papers with them on were discrete and picked up three or 4 before going into booth.
My wife (EU citizen) voted for the first time in France this am…
She was completely confused as to how you physically vote here, expecting a ballot paper to fill in as in the UK. She’d googled the mechanics of voting without finding anything useful. Unfortunately nobody seemed able or willing to explain to her that she needed to scoop up a list to stuff into an envelope, despite her saying she was a first time voter and asking the officials manning the ballot box what she should do.
The most they were prepared to help was to point out the voting booth, which she was perfectly capable of identifying!
I guess the problem is that if you’re used to voting in a particular way, and have done so all your life, you possibly just assume everyone must know how to vote. You would think this must be an issue for first time voters here, including French people, but there were no explanatory posters or attempts at guidance…it’s a pity as it slightly marred an otherwise special event, namely the first vote in France.
I looked it up yesterday to check, because it’s been a while since the last EU parliament election. It’s a bit confusing at first sight, because most parties print two papers - one for policy and one which is the actual bulletin de vote, with the list of all their candidates. You can pick up as many papers as you want but you can only vote for one party. You fold the bulletin de vote to fit into the envelope that goes into the urn.
In France there are 38 lists of candidates registered for the EP election. France is allocated 81 MEPs in total. Each of the candidate lists contains 81 names, (hoping to get a full house!) with alternating candidates of each gender.
I can’t help thinking that a single bulletin de vote for each voter, with a tick box for each of the parties standing, would save a lot of money…
My French partner voted. I can’t vote here yet… I believe in no representation without taxation, so am looking forward to getting a refund on my income tax
So depressed this morning! Our commune had turnout over 65%, but well over 65% of those voted extreme right/right. When we moved here it was more like 6%!
Totally amazing.
They celebrate D Day and then vote hard right.
Is there a collective brain disease affecting France and Europe or have they all got incipient Alzheimers?
got back yesterday evening to find the commune had voted overwhelmingly RN…
We’ve been away with pals from all over … and chatting at dinner, I did ask some of them if they’d organised a “procuration” since they were absent from their communes… far too many said the Euro elections didn’t matter and they couldn’t be bothered…
perhaps that thinking is why we’ve got what we’ve got
I can only hope they see sense in these forthcoming elections…
)
