UKC

After a slight delay while the clerk checked with someone else I was allowed to vote, although I'm still surprised I'm 'English' rather than 'British' on my voting card (when I complained I was told the software only allowed me a choice of English or American !)

Anyone else taking part ?

In reply to Doug:
I missed the deadline for registering so can't do it (I just assumed I couldn't - being English - until it was too late). However after two weeks of beautiful weather we've got howling winds and a snowstorm, so I'm glad I don't need to leave the house!

How big is your commune? I think mine has only 400 eligible voters and I personally know 10 of the 15 people standing - bit different from local elections back 'home' in London.

In reply to yorkshireman:

I live in the Paris suburbs so the commune is large (just checked, some 54 000). Oddly, I know candidates in the surrounding communes (some quite well) but not in my own (but we live at the edge of our commune - the building opposite is another commune (& dept) while the block of flats next door is a third commune). But back home in Scotland I knew many of the candidates (for both local & national elections).

In reply to Doug:

Interesting that the communes vary so much in size - are you electing fewer councillors (or whatever they are) in the smaller ones, or is the local administration a similar size and responsibility in both? Our parish council would be of the magnitude of 100s of voters, and sits within a district council of about 100,000.

In reply to Doug:


I don't think they would have let me cast an absentee ballot from Myanmar! (Work rather than climbing - not found any rock yet.) Otherwise I would have had to walk all of 100m to the Mairie.

In reply to Doug:
I voted this morning. Just checked my card and I'm Britannique. I think probably the lady at the mairie in Villeperdrix wouldn't know what 'software' was and probably relied on one of those new fangled biro things.

Being as the population is only 105 you are allowed to panaché your vote, meaning that you can pick people from both sides. I saw on the news last night that this practice is only allowed in communes of less than 1000. Don't quite know what the advantages are but I can certainly see the disadvantages! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panachage As far as I can remember it wasn't anything like that in Vallorcine (pop 415) so maybe small communes can do things exactly how they want?

In reply to Doug:

Forgot to register but our mayor Dany has been in for 18 years and is dialed in for next year too - Like I'm going to vote against him lol!

E

In reply to jon:

Advantages ? The list I would probably have voted for is led by someone who (based on what he writes regularly in the local press etc) is a complete idiot. So because of him I voted for another list.

But I do find the list system pretty odd

In reply to Enty:


Absolutely. I only really voted to keep the old team in - and certainly keep our next door neighbour out! FFS she lives in Berlin and wants to move to New York. Beats me why she thinks she should have the right to put herself forward!

In reply to Doug:
We've just moved from Noisiel (house for sale) to a smaller commune a few miles away with about 7 to 800 inhabitants. We all voted today but it wasn't exactly a rush... only one list so the result is fairly certain! The idea of "pancheage", of choosing people from different lists, or crossing out people you didn't like used to be more general I think, now it is restricted to small communes. I think it might disappear soon but reflected the notion that in small communes the person counted more than the party. In a large town with a budget of many millions, schools and public services to manage the idea of a policy makes more sense, in a village with just two people to trim the hedges and a couple of administrative people to deal with voting lists, hunting permits and such like it seems less necessary, not to mention the difficulty of finding enough people for several lists.

As for my carte d'electeur, it just gives my place of birth, not my nationality. In fact that should be in the plural as this time I got three through the post, two at the old address, one to Bruce Hooker and the other to Bruce William Hooker and one from the new address for Bruce Hooker... that's France I suppose - last time I didn't get any. I didn't try to see what would happen if I voted three times though. The first two said "Londres (Royaume-Uni)", the third just "Londres", so it can't be down to the soft ware IMO.

In reply to Doug:

PS. Just saw the result for Bussy Saint Martin where I voted, the unique list got 95.16%! Nearly up to Crimean standards

In reply to jon:

you are allowed to panaché your vote,

I thought it meant you could sip a light alcoholic refreshment while you cast your ballot :p