OH has received his ballot paper, from UK, waiting for mine.
We got our voting packs this morning, and I posted off my vote this afternoon. I was surprised at the proliferation of English Nationalist parties on the list, but our constituency is in Essex, and our MP the choleric Mark Francois.
I voted Green, although Iām a paid-up member of the Labour Party. I think lots of comrades will be disposed to do the same.
Seems our Mairie will be sending new voting cardsā¦ printed on a special systemā¦ so they might become ācollectableā if Brexit goes aheadā¦ as they will be the last voting cards that many of us Brits in France will be receivingā¦
I have a dumb question.
I received my voting card in France last week.
Earlier this afternoon I happened to read that today is the last day for registering to vote in the UKelections, so I got excited and clicked the link to the UK gov registration page. I filled it in very fast, not having much time and not really expecting it to let me register, but apparently it did and I have registered myself for a UK postal vote, or will have once Iāve got the form and filled it in and sent it back.
Am I actually allowed to vote in both the French and the UK elections?
Since we can either vote in EU elections in the UK or France (one man one vote etc), we shall vote in France so our democratic right is not āpissed into the windā.
No Anna. AFAIK, you can vote legally in one or the other but not both.
Thought not
I wonder why the UK site let me through. As far as Iām aware I didnāt tell any lies, but I didnāt see a question to screen out people who are voting in another country. Maybe I ticked a wrong box somehere by accident.
Because, as it stands, you have not voted yet. Like most things European, you do this āon your honourā and are expected to respect the principles. Once your vote is cast (in the post or in person) you have done the deed to the exclusion of the other.
OK fair enough. Though they could have spelled it out for dimwits like me.
Normally I would vote in France but what with everything I might use my vote to support a sensible UK candidate if I can find one. It will almost certainly be a wasted vote but at least Iāll feel I tried.
When you enrol on the Voting Register in Franceā¦ as Graham mentionsā¦ honour is involved. On your honourā¦ you are not voting anywhere elseā¦
Soā¦ if you are allowed a UK Voteā¦ on your honourā¦ you should ignore your French right to Voteā¦
UK for us.
Yes I have understood that. I wonāt be voting in the French EU elections this time.
I imagined that would be the case, but I expected it to be made explicit at some point during the registration process on the UK portal.
Maybe it was and I didnāt take it in due to not being properly focused on what I was doing.
Frankly, I donāt see the point of voting in the UK/EU election. Your vote will be wasted - a bit like those idiots in the UK local elections who spoilt their ballot papers to vote for a non existent Brexit candidate.
Fact is that Farridgeās follies will have little or no influence whatsoever on the machinations of the UK Parliament in deciding an end to the Brexit impasse. Itās got sod all to with MEPs
Iām waiting to see the list of candidates here before I make up my mind whether to vote in UK or here. Our commune/area has been moving in a direction Iām not comfortable with so need to decide whether vote more meaningful here or there. I donāt agree that a vote in the UK would be wasted as imagine the triumph on that nasty non-handwashing manās face if the extreme right topple everyone else.
Isnāt it a bit defeatist not to vote because you donāt think it will do any good?
Hopefully as you say Farage & Co will continue to be all hot air in the UK as far as Brexit goes, but if elected they will certainly make themselves as obnoxious as possible. Theyāre not fit to be elected, and Iām sure the EU would be grateful for all votes against them.
On the other hand I donāt think there is any danger of my commune here voting for a cretin whose sole object in standing is to cause as many problems as possible for the EU.
I certainly plan on voting - absolutely no idea if it will make a difference, probably not but at least I can say I tried to influence the result.
West Midlands returned 3 UKIP MEPs, 2 Tory and 2 Labour last time - the voting was
UKIP - 428,010 votes
Labour - 363,033
Conservative - 330,470
LibDem - 75,648
Green - 71,464
Others 90,582 (pretty much all on a leave the EU ticket).
The dāHondt system is ludicrously complex and somewhat favours the larger parties but, give or take, I reckon it would take about 175k votes for the smaller parties to gain one seat (this has been carefully calculated by the tried and tested āfinger in the airā mathematical method).
I donāt think you can extrapolate much from the local elections - all other things being equal Iād expect a lot of the old UKIP vote to go to the Brexit party but whether the overall share of the vote for right wing, Eurosceptic āLeave means Leaveā parties will go up or down I honestly donāt know - I doubt that the Brexit party will get all that vote, lets make a wild guess at 70% of it or about 350k votes - that ought to return 2 MEPs.
Letās further assume that Labour and the Tories are a busted flush at present and they will loose votes to the greens/LibDem - assuming a similar swing to that seen in the local elections (80% for the two combined in 2017 down to 56% in 2019) that would amount to as many as 200k votes. Greenās and LD are pretty evenly split so lets say 100k each.
So, hereās my prediction (letās see how laughably inaccurate it is)
Brexit Party - 350k votes 2/3MEPs
Lab - 260k - 1/2MEP
Tory - 230k - 1MEP
LibDem - 175k - 1MEP
Green - 171k - 1 MEP
Change UK - 70k
Others (inc UKIP) - 150k
That assumes a similar turnout (33%) to 2014.
So, I reckon it is certainly possible to get one or both the LibDems and Greens above the threshold for a seat - worth a go, anyway.
EDIT: Of course what I forgot to take account of is the possibility that there will be a swing from Tory to Farageās new party which was not evident at the local elections.
Weāll see, I guess.
But I will be votingā¦ in Europe for the European elections so my vote will count.
Certainly not! The EU is democratic and only allows each citizen one vote. If you vote twice you will be breaking the law. But you do have the choice of which country you vote in.
It is interesting to note that I have been sent voting papers from the UK, despite the fact that I have lived abroad for more than 15 years and am no longer allowed to vote in UK elections. Just one more example of the EU being more democratic than my country of birth!
So it was actually:
Brexit Party 507,152 - 3 MEPs
Labour 228,298 - 1 MEP
Lib Dem 219,982 - 1 MEP
Green 143,520 - 1 MEP
Tory 135,279 - 1 MEP
So, I wasnāt that close on votes but didnāt do a bad job on numbers of MEPs
Tories getting trounced though.