European elections will definitely go ahead

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 Iā€™m 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 ā€œcollectableā€ if Brexit goes aheadā€¦ as they will be the last voting cards that many of us Brits in France will be receivingā€¦ :hugs::thinking:

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 Iā€™ve 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 ā€˜pissed into the windā€™.

No Anna. AFAIK, you can vote legally in one or the other but not both.

Thought not :smiley:
I wonder why the UK site let me through. As far as Iā€™m aware I didnā€™t tell any lies, but I didnā€™t see a question to screen out people who are voting in another country. Maybe I ticked a wrong box somehere by accident.

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Because, as it stands, you have not voted yet. Like most things European, you do this ā€˜on 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.

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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 Iā€™ll feel I tried.

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When you enrol on the Voting Register in Franceā€¦ as Graham mentionsā€¦ honour is involved. On your honourā€¦ you are not voting anywhere elseā€¦ :relaxed:

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 wonā€™t 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 didnā€™t take it in due to not being properly focused on what I was doing.

Frankly, I donā€™t 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 Farridgeā€™s follies will have little or no influence whatsoever on the machinations of the UK Parliament in deciding an end to the Brexit impasse. Itā€™s got sod all to with MEPs :crazy_face:

Iā€™m 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 Iā€™m not comfortable with so need to decide whether vote more meaningful here or there. I donā€™t agree that a vote in the UK would be wasted as imagine the triumph on that nasty non-handwashing manā€™s face if the extreme right topple everyone else.

Isnā€™t it a bit defeatist not to vote because you donā€™t 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. Theyā€™re not fit to be elected, and Iā€™m sure the EU would be grateful for all votes against them.

On the other hand I donā€™t 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 dā€™Hondt 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 ā€œfinger in the airā€ mathematical method).

I donā€™t think you can extrapolate much from the local elections - all other things being equal Iā€™d 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 ā€œLeave means Leaveā€ parties will go up or down I honestly donā€™t 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.

Letā€™s 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. Greenā€™s and LD are pretty evenly split so lets say 100k each.

So, hereā€™s my prediction (letā€™s 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 Farageā€™s new party which was not evident at the local elections.

Weā€™ll 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!

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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 wasnā€™t that close on votes but didnā€™t do a bad job on numbers of MEPs

Tories getting trounced though.