France’s 1st round of presidential elections is today, so I decided to tag along with my sweetie to the polls. But before that, I said, “Hey, but it’s lunchtime. Are they open?”
“Of course, they’re open,” he says as if actually saying, “duh.”
“OMG. Something in France is open during that sacrosanct hour, lunchtime??!”
“Ha. It’s probably the only day in the year when THAT happens, huh?”
So we arrive and I felt all excited even though I don’t get to vote. It’s just fun to see how other countries do this I guess. Here’s what you see if you’re from a village like ours. (it’s probably a lot different in large cities. maybe.) A few guys at a table in a room at the Mairie with nothing decorating the walls except a very new no smoking sticker and a photo of our current leader, Jacques Chirac. I then realize at this moment that this is definitely NOT an electronic voting system.
I ask the gentlemen if they’d mind if I take some photos. “Why?” (as in “Why on earth for?”) But then they say ok. We were lucky to find happy officials. It could easily have been 3 surly old geezers, staring you down with eye daggers.
My other half begins to gather all of his slips of paper as I tell the officials that he doesn’t yet know who he’s going to vote for. (which was true). They chuckle politely.
He proceeds to the booth to put his slip of paper into a blue envelope. (Damn! I forgot to take a picture of the booth. I know, I’m a nerd.) He takes a while as he tries to come up with his lesser of the evil choice. As I wait, I ask the men which one of them will say, “A Voté!“? The guy in the middle, as if embarrassed says, “That would be me.”
Finally, he comes out of the booth to drop his vote into the urne, and the middle guy meekly says his little spiel quickly (see how embarrassed he looks?).
Polls close at 6pm. Now. Does this method seem, well, flawed? It would be so easy for small villages like this to stuff that ole ballot box. Who’s watching them, afterall? Yep, always the conspiracy theorist. But you know, there are somewhere around 6,000 villages in France. A collaborative cheat session could result in a strange and fatal conclusion.
The French 1st and 2nd round system also seems like it could use some improvement. Especially this year when so many people are split between several candidates. For example, say your first choice is Besancenot (yea, the revolutionary communist mailman), your second choice is Bayrou, but Royal and Laguiller (I know, this is extremely hypothetical) make it to the 2nd round and Bayrou doesn’t. And if all people’s 2nd choice was Bayrou, he might’ve had a chance to win the 2nd round if he’d made it to the 2nd round. Like, what would happen in the 2nd round if you could vote between 3 candidates. You know? Anyway.
That’s the process if you were wondering. It is history in the making, as it could and will surely result in dire consequences for the hexagon.
10 Comments so far
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OMG That was such an awesome post! Thank you! I’ve been bugging the boyfriend to tell me about the electoral process in france and he’s been very french about it “beh…uhmmm….it’s voting! C’est simple!” And open during lunch? I know, my eyes bugged out too!
How complicated it all seems… no wonder Le Pen actually made it in 2002!
Thanks again!
Comment by Jooree 04.22.07 @ 10:48 amYou’re so mean with france, restaurants are also opened during lunch time.
Comment by Calimero 04.22.07 @ 11:48 am(In french this time)
Bon, bah les résultats sont tombés, 1) Sarkozy / 2) Royal (/3) Bayrou / 4)Le Pen)
Je suis pas spécialement content, mais c’est ce qu’on attendait, malhereusement, depuis bientôt 6 mois… Pourquoi quand c’est Lepen il arrive au 2eme tour et quand c’ets Bayrou, ça marche pas?…
Comment by Ewj 04.22.07 @ 1:10 pmi’m glad you liked it, jooree (i was wondering if i was the only one who was wondering about it.)
calimero, trolling as always…
ewj, i was disappointed too because i was hoping some totally unexpected results would occur. oh well. i was surprised that besancenot got that many votes, though.
Comment by ptinfrance 04.22.07 @ 1:24 pmActually I find this less complicated than the vote in the USA, where I heard that when you vote for the Presidential elections, you can (and will) vote for also A LOT OF other elections at the same time. I can’t really explain this in English, but when I saw once on TV one of your “bulletin de vote”, I thought : oh my gosh, how complicated is that ! No wonder there can be so many mistakes…”
Tout est relatif of course.
Comment by Sandrine 04.22.07 @ 5:27 pmsandrine. simple is better, i agree. when voting in the u.s. you have some sort of punch card and you put a book over it and turn each page one at a time to punch your candidates and propositions you are voting for. (at least that’s what i did the last time i voted in the u.s., which was in washington) it IS complicated! and you have to read so much boring political literature to know who to vote for. (i used to have to ask people about some of the props and candidates.) makes me wonder if ppl just vote randomly without knowing what they are doing.
Comment by ptinfrance 04.22.07 @ 11:21 pmNot 100% sure, but i think you can stay while they count the votes if you think theyt are going to stuff the ballots.
Comment by pascal 04.23.07 @ 2:56 amPascal, here in Washington (and I guess it was the same in every town in France too), you can stay at the end of the day, either to help counting the votes, or just to watch the people doing it. But you can stay for a very long time as they have to count and re-count again…
ptinfrance, I’m glad you agree with me, I didn’t want to offence anyone.;o)
Comment by Sandrine 04.23.07 @ 5:07 amNice post! To make it more specific for those of your readers who asked the questions and yourself, yes, it is pretty simple, since you endorse all propositions of one person by casting a vote on one name only.
Then, the ballot box is transparent, it is checked empty by the “assesseurs” at the opening of the vote, and any citizen who wants to be present is welcome, and should go sign that the “urne” was indeed empty.
You are also encouraged to come and count the votes at the end, any citizen is allowed to, and it is a very interesting and generally cheerful moment in one’s life.
The enveloppes are all counted before opening, and the number is matched with the number of people who signed (you sign after you have cast your vote, you did not mention that). Then all the papers inside the envelope are sorted, and counted, if the number does not match (less) it is when an envelope was empty (vote blanc), and if there are more papers in an envelope, it is null and void.
An altered paper is also counted as void, you cannot sign a paper, or mark it with any identification or love or hate message on it.
Everything is double-checked and signed by several assesseurs and the chairperson of the election bureau.
There was a big controversy about the electronic vote because it is easier to cheat with the machines, and there is little to no possibility to cross-check afterwards if there are discrepancies.
It turned out that the experimental places that had voting-machines did not enjoy the experience (loss of time, complications, traffic-jams, etc.)
Comment by Otir 04.23.07 @ 8:44 amthanks pascal, sandrine and otir. that is cool that you can go count votes – haha i might have to check that out on the 2nd round. tho. i don’t think i’ll be that happy about the result. 
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