Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2014 15:52:50 GMT
I'll try to keep this as non-partisan as I can as it is mainly to relate my experiences of voting for the first time in my life in another country. I apologise in advance to those who are well acquainted with French Elections and how they work.
I am aged 60 and have been interested in politics and involved for 45 years. I first voted at age 18 in the 1972 locals and have done so in every election since and have participated in most of those elections as an activist and a number of times as a Local Council Candidate, but I never stood for Parliament I regret to say. I have been an Election Agent, (Voluntary), worked on an MP's HQ Staff in charge of Canvassing and Statistics at a General Election, and have run Committee Rooms and done all the usual things such as Canvassing, Leafleting, Street Stalls, Telling- which I love, and knocking up - which I DON'T.
This morning I did my weekly food shopping at the small Carrefour Mini-market (large stores are not permitted to open in France on Sundays and the smaller ones only 9am to 1pm, a policy of which I totally approve although coming from 24/7 UK it took a bit of getting used to). The local UMP Committee Rooms are in the same road but there was no activity, a surprise to me as in UK Elections a Committee Room is always manned and is like Piccadilly Circus! When later I went to a local school to vote there were no Tellers etc just the Voters and the Clerks. I now learn from the Internet that in France all Opinion Polls, Political Broadcasts etc are banned on Polling Day and it would seem, at least in the suburb of Toulouse where I live now, that there is not a lot of activity on the ground either, perhaps as it is Sunday. I assume that things are more active in Paris and the big cities such as Toulouse.
Now as to the process. I went to the Polling Station and being Un étranger I asked the Clerk, in French I had learned via Google Translate, to explain the process which she did. It works like this. You are told to go to a "Voting Station" and there are sheets with the Lists for the Various Parties on a large table. It is a Closed List system in large "Communes" such as mine like that used for Euro-elections in the UK. You cannot cross out any candidate you do not want nor add another nor write anything on your sheet as that renders it a Spoilt Paper. These rules are a bit more relaxed in small "Communes" with 1000 or fewer electors AFAIK. You then take the sheet you wish, go onto a Polling Booth with a curtain rather like that in the UK, and put the sheet you chose in the envelope then you go to another desk where there are Clerks. You show them your Carte Electorale, (Polling Card) they check off your name off your name and address on the Electoral Register, you then put the envelope with the sheet of your choice inside it into the Ballot Box which is transparent not black and opaque as in the UK, and the Clerk says that your vote has now been cast. You are then shown your name on the Register and asked to sign against it on the list and one of the Clerks stamps your Carte Electorale. That's it. A wee bit different to a UK Election.
AFAIK the Polls are open from 08:00 to 18:00 possibly to 20:00 in the big cities such as Paris. I will be watching France Vingt-Quatre English Channel this evening as the results come in but I somehow feel it will be a bit more laid back than the UK Election Specials, is there an " équipe de Pierre et Daniel Neige" to work the graphics of all the different coloured little figures filling the seats of the Hotel de Ville? Do they have "Swings" in the French system?
Sadly, IMO, I expect the PS, of which I am a member and for which I have voted for the first time today, to take a bath tonight but that's politics and at the end of May I will, if I can access and stream it here in France, be watching the BBC Coverage of the British Locals and the Euros and the smile will then be on my face I feel. The big question here will be how well will the Front National led by Marine Le Pen do and where?
I am aged 60 and have been interested in politics and involved for 45 years. I first voted at age 18 in the 1972 locals and have done so in every election since and have participated in most of those elections as an activist and a number of times as a Local Council Candidate, but I never stood for Parliament I regret to say. I have been an Election Agent, (Voluntary), worked on an MP's HQ Staff in charge of Canvassing and Statistics at a General Election, and have run Committee Rooms and done all the usual things such as Canvassing, Leafleting, Street Stalls, Telling- which I love, and knocking up - which I DON'T.
This morning I did my weekly food shopping at the small Carrefour Mini-market (large stores are not permitted to open in France on Sundays and the smaller ones only 9am to 1pm, a policy of which I totally approve although coming from 24/7 UK it took a bit of getting used to). The local UMP Committee Rooms are in the same road but there was no activity, a surprise to me as in UK Elections a Committee Room is always manned and is like Piccadilly Circus! When later I went to a local school to vote there were no Tellers etc just the Voters and the Clerks. I now learn from the Internet that in France all Opinion Polls, Political Broadcasts etc are banned on Polling Day and it would seem, at least in the suburb of Toulouse where I live now, that there is not a lot of activity on the ground either, perhaps as it is Sunday. I assume that things are more active in Paris and the big cities such as Toulouse.
Now as to the process. I went to the Polling Station and being Un étranger I asked the Clerk, in French I had learned via Google Translate, to explain the process which she did. It works like this. You are told to go to a "Voting Station" and there are sheets with the Lists for the Various Parties on a large table. It is a Closed List system in large "Communes" such as mine like that used for Euro-elections in the UK. You cannot cross out any candidate you do not want nor add another nor write anything on your sheet as that renders it a Spoilt Paper. These rules are a bit more relaxed in small "Communes" with 1000 or fewer electors AFAIK. You then take the sheet you wish, go onto a Polling Booth with a curtain rather like that in the UK, and put the sheet you chose in the envelope then you go to another desk where there are Clerks. You show them your Carte Electorale, (Polling Card) they check off your name off your name and address on the Electoral Register, you then put the envelope with the sheet of your choice inside it into the Ballot Box which is transparent not black and opaque as in the UK, and the Clerk says that your vote has now been cast. You are then shown your name on the Register and asked to sign against it on the list and one of the Clerks stamps your Carte Electorale. That's it. A wee bit different to a UK Election.
AFAIK the Polls are open from 08:00 to 18:00 possibly to 20:00 in the big cities such as Paris. I will be watching France Vingt-Quatre English Channel this evening as the results come in but I somehow feel it will be a bit more laid back than the UK Election Specials, is there an " équipe de Pierre et Daniel Neige" to work the graphics of all the different coloured little figures filling the seats of the Hotel de Ville? Do they have "Swings" in the French system?
Sadly, IMO, I expect the PS, of which I am a member and for which I have voted for the first time today, to take a bath tonight but that's politics and at the end of May I will, if I can access and stream it here in France, be watching the BBC Coverage of the British Locals and the Euros and the smile will then be on my face I feel. The big question here will be how well will the Front National led by Marine Le Pen do and where?
