It’s rare to have something other than our daily activities to discuss on the blog these days. As Will mentioned, we recently participated in our first municipal elections, giving me the chance to blog about France, instead of us.
As EU citizens, we have the right to vote in municipal and EU elections only so we couldn’t vote in the presidential election in 2012. Municipal elections are held every six years to elect the city council. The number of seats depends on the number of inhabitants. Here in Milhac (pop. 650), there were 15 positions whereas in Villars (pop. 450), there were 11. There are two different voting processes, depending on size but otherwise, every commune in France has a maire and city council with the same powers.
You had to be registered to vote before the end of year preceding the election. We had done so right when we first arrived here. There are two rounds of voting, held on consecutive Sundays. In small communes like ours, there are slates of candidates (lists) with up to 15 names. Traditionally, the person at the top of the list will become the maire (more on this below). In small communes, the lists are not organised by political party, they are merely like minded people running as a team.
During the first round, each voter has 15 votes, and you are not required to choose from the same list. It is also possible to write-in the name of someone not on any list. The ballots themselves are pieces of paper with the names of each candidate on the list. You can vote for the entire list by putting the folded piece of paper in a small blue envelope. You can also cross off certain names from multiple lists, but you must ensure that only 15 names remain un-crossed out.
In this election, we had two lists of 15 names, and one list of 5. The latter was headed by the old maire, who had been in office for nearly 3 terms (17 years). At the beginning of the year, he said he wouldn’t run, but later changed his mind citing the “will of the voters” that he should return. He did not succeed. We were supporting one of the full lists comprising a number of people that we know. The head of list lives just down the road from us and works as the deputy at the state park in which we live.
Will was in the UK on the first Sunday, so he obtained a “procuration” from the mairie beforehand. Essentially, he designated me as his stand-in for this election only. At the polling station (aka the multi-purpose room in the village centre), there were three curtained-booths where you could make any changes to the paper lists. I wasn’t sure how it all worked but one of the monitors explained how I could cross off names etc.
I altered my lists as necessary, then took the two envelopes up to a table with a clear plastic ballot box and four people. The first one takes your voter registration card and stamps it with today’s date, then you drop your envelope into the box. There were two people checking the registration book and reading out your voter number, and the fourth had a book where you signed your name to indicate that you’d voted.
The polling station is open non-stop from 9am – 6pm, with no break for lunch! Around midday, people start gathering outside, having drinks and picnicking. I didn’t join them the first day, but Will and I both went down on the second day, and were invited to join some friends, one of whom’s husband was running. Apparently, election day is a bit of a national holiday, and ad hoc parties like these are common.
Vote counting is done in public, starting as soon as the polls close. We didn’t go, but Philippe was running, so he and Françoise went and she described it to me. This time, there are at least ten officials involved in the tallying of votes. Each envelope is opened, and the 15 names read out. These are recorded by someone. The paper is then handed to a different person, who records the votes, while two people witness the act. It is then verified by yet another threesome. I could be exaggerating slightly, but that’s how it sounded to me.
When all votes are tallied, anyone with more than 50% of the total vote is elected on the spot. All others are eligible to participate in the second round of voting, but this is not mandatory. There were 450 people eligible to vote, and 410 of them voted, over 80% turnout! Around 20 were not valid because they voted for more than 15, for example, leaving a total of 390. Anyone with more than 195 votes, was elected. Here, 8 out of the 15 people from our chosen list were elected that night, but not Philippe who missed by just a few votes. For the second round, each voter had seven votes, and two lists of seven to choose from (the old maire and his list dropped out). This was an easy decision for us, and we voted for the remaining seven on our friends’ list.
In the second round, the seven people with the most votes become the other council members. In the end, thirteen people from our chosen list were elected, except the lady who is moving, and our friend Cami. He is the wife of Josienne, the woman who is president of my convo group. She ran for maire in the last election and lost to the current maire who was running for reelection. Lucien and Mauricette don’t like her at all and apparently, she is a love her or hate her kind of person. In this election, her husband Cami who is a very likeable and generally lovely person, suffered as a result.
On the Saturday after the election, the council meet for the first time to decide who will be maire, deputy maire and the three adjuncts. Since there is no maire yet, the first meeting is chaired by the oldest person in the room, which was Glynnis, who I know from convo group. As expected, our neighbour who was top of the list was elected maire. In town on a bulletin board is a list of the new council, with each person’s position (if applicable), their location, date of birth and the total number of votes received.
In all, I found it to be the most transparent election I have ever participated in. I look forward to doing it again in six years, unless of course we become French citizens.