European elections

[Clair]

[quote user="Tony F Dordogne"]No it isn't.  I've just done my two hours on election duty at the Mairie and worked through the count (I'm on the Bureau) and all the cards I saw today clearly state that they cover booth the Municipales and the European elections.  I also checked with the Secretary and the Maire and you only have to fill in one form.  This isn't just a local/24 thing, it's the law, the Maire looked up the Code which we had in the voring room and it clearly states that you only have to fill in one form, which it designates and that the Card covers both elections.  If you have to fill in two forms, it's a local and wholly unecessary thing. [/quote]

[quote]http://www.interieur.gouv.fr/sections/a_votre_service/elections/comment_voter/carte-electorale

Les ressortissants communautaires ont-ils une carte électorale ?

Les ressortissants communautaires ont désormais la possibilité de

voter en France à l'élection des représentants au Parlement européen et

aux élections municipales.

Le droit de vote et l'éligibilité des citoyens européens leur a été

ouvert par le traité de Maastricht en son article 8B, la directive n°

94/80/CE du 19 décembre 1994, et la loi organique n° 98-404 du 25 mai

1998.

Ils doivent être inscrits sur les listes complémentaires correspondantes. Il leur est délivré une carte électorale d'un modèle spécial pour chacun des deux scrutins.[/quote]

There is a special voting card for EU citizens who want to vote for the EU elections in France.

Mr Clair was given his card for the EU vote last week and it is marked "la présente carte est valable exclusivement pour les elections européennes" and has a line below blacked out.

He has another card which he used for the local elections last year.

My card simply says "carte électorale".

[Clair]

Translated from La Dépêche:

In the Lot

• Slight increase in participation. Ranked among the most civic
  departments of France, the Lot was faithful yesterday. Turnout was
  estimated at 51,28%. It was 50,93% in 2004.
• The PS collapses, the UMP reaps the votes. Main party in 2004 with 33.37%, the
  Socialist Party is behind with 18.27%. It has suffered serious setbacks,
  overtaken almost everywhere (except in Sousceyrac) by the UMP (26.13% at department level) and followed closely by the Greens in Cahors. Even in Figeac the PS is behind the UMP.
• Green strength. The list of José Bové (16.60%) is right behind
  the Socialist Party in the department. When the voice of the
  independent environmental coalition is added, the green trend overtakes the
  Socialists, who were without their radical leftist allies whose voices
  have been scattered or have remained silent.
• The MoDem in decline, the Left front is assured.
  François Bayrou's troops are down two points from 2004 with 8.59%. As for the Left front (PC and
  Left Party), its good score of 9.21% places it in fourth position.

[Maricopa]

[quote user="Clair"]There is a special voting card for EU citizens who want to vote for the EU elections in France.
Mr Clair was given his card for the EU vote last week and it is marked "la présente carte est valable exclusivement pour les elections européennes" and has a line below blacked out.
He has another card which he used for the local elections last year.
My card simply says "carte électorale".[/quote]

My card says on the front in a box...."Les Élections au Parlement Europeen, Les Élections Municipales".  But I did have to fill in two forms.

[mint]

I know we filled in 2 forms because the mairie sent us out 2 forms each.

[NormanH]

[quote user="sweet 17"]I know we filled in 2 forms because the mairie sent us out 2 forms each.[/quote]

I voted for both elections with the same card, and have never been sent any other.

I was a candidate on one of the main party's lists for the local

elections, and  have been an 'assesseur' for 10 years, 'signing off'

the Mayor's list at the central bureau of 53 in our town, so I have

some experience.

Clair is quite right about what the regulations say, but as often local interpretations differ, and we end up disagreeing here based on our own experience.

Another example of that is the question the number of the population after which a 'pièce d'identité' is required.

Clair rightly corrected my figure of 3500. It is was revised up to 5000

before the last local elections, but in our 'bureau de vote' the old

notice with the figure 3500 was put up, so I posted that .

This time round we had the problem that one bureau had been closed

because it wasn't easy of access for handicapped people, and transferred to another site, but no new Cartes had been issued with

the new address on them, even though the voters who had voted at the

old site had been redistributed between 3 other site.

I spent a considerable part of Sunday checking identities, and then

finding out by calling the service d'élections where people should

go...and that was the ones who managed to find the new bureau.

Of course I will be accused of being 'negative'.

I am not. I am very impressed by the way in which ordinary people 

such as me, a foreigner, can be closely involved in the election

process.

I am impressed by the availability of my local  'élu'  (MP ) who I

have met socially 5 times since January, and who at least recognises

who I am.

In  nearly 50 years in the UK I never met an MP.

On the other hand I 'tell it as it is' according to my experience.

In our bureau de vote ( inspected 3 times during the day) the idea of  there being any alcohol around  ( see another thread) would be absolutely horrifying, but that of course doesn't contribute to the image as France as some sort of quaint Disneyland inhabited by amusing  'characters'.

[mint]

The "quaintness" of some procedures here in France does make one smile.

In the long and distant past, our commune merged with the adjoining one to make a sufficiently large entity for administration purposes.

Being newcomers, we would not have known about this historical fact.  Luckily, at a recent dinner in a friend's house, I happened to ask about the name of our commune (as it seems rather a mouthful) upon which our friend explained about the merger and also which part of the name applies to us.

This is a roundabout introduction to explain that when we went to vote, we naturally went to the mairie, only to be told that we belonged to the other commune (which no longer exists) and must therefore vote at the école maternelle.

The 2 places are on the same main road and it's not as though we live in a large town where the crush of numbers means that 2 different polling locations would be more efficient.

As it was, we had a chat with the people in the one place and a chat and voted in the other place.  Taking Clair's advice, we took our passports but, of course, everyone knew who we were, where we lived, what our house looked like, etc.  As I have said, just so very quaint.

It's so like Wales:  you know, the joke about one Welsh person saying to the other, "But I worship at the other chapel"! 

[NormanH]

"It's so like Wales"..so not that 'French' then, more a question of small rural communities, which is where a lot of British people have settled.

This is probably the source of the conflicting views which often come up here. Different people generalise from widely different experiences.

You wouldn't have been able to vote without a proper means of identification in the bureau de vote where I served yesterday, and no-one would have known who you were.

I checked over 300 people and saw only one whose face I vaguely recognised.

So basically it is a problem of  hermeneutics.

[mint]

Had to look up "hermeneutics" as it's a totally new one on me.  Will now find a clergyman and try it out on him (don't know any clergywoman).

Nice word, Norman, thank you for introducing me to it (or it to me).

[NormanH]

The old theological  meaning has been rather replaced, after a passage via Heidegger (among others) to have a general meaning of conflicts of interpretation based on different personal experiences.

So in my town dustbins might be green, kept by individual households, and collected once a week.

In your village they are 3 colours and kept in central places because you are supposed to 'trier' your waste, and collected  once a day.

( I have of course created two fictional scenarios which represent different personal experiences)

A newcomer arrives and 6 months later posts a bold generalisation about 'France' without ever having seen the huge differences that exist between regions, town and country, or climates.

Then the fun starts..

[mint]

And people start replying to the post with their hermeneutical views?[:D]