It’s Sunday, May 22nd. Everyone in France has known for months that this is election day. The French vote every 5 years for their President. This time around, there were 10 candidates. Here are their posters that were put up on a special board they mounted for this purpose right in our square next to where they hold the weekly farmer's market and next to where voting takes place: (notice sarkozy's poster third to left was ripped early on.)
The precincts are open from 8AM to 6PM throughout the country. Overseas territories such as the Ile of Réunion or New Caledonia cast their votes one day before. The dépouillement or counting of the votes takes place at precisely 6:01 once the polls have closed. In our village, the town’s multipurpose room was the voting center. I was told to wander over to the center and check out how the vote counting takes place, so I did.
I entered and found many familiar faces. Eight tables had been set up at which 4 people were seated. At each table, there was at least 1 city council member. The 2-3 others appeared to be volunteers. Around each table were 15 or so bystanders. In the corner of the room was an easel with some figures. Each hour during the day, it had been recorded which percentage of the town had cast their vote. By 2pm more than 60% had voted. We have a population of 2200.
Here is what I observed:
Person #1 would remove the ballot from the envelope and pass it to Person #2. He would then pronounce the last name, e.g., Sarkozy or LePen. The next two persons would each tally that result. All of this took place under the watch of the bystanders. The ballots were placed in 10 different stacks. As I roamed among the eight tables, I got a pretty good feel for who was leading. The two tally sheets were quite easy to read as well and served as a more accurate read for curious ones such as myself. To my surprise, Marine LePen, who took over her father’s position and who represents the extreme right, had quite a few votes. I overheard chatter that the youth had cast their vote for her.
Once all the votes had been counted, we were asked to leave the room. Through the glass door, I then saw the city council members and volunteers wink at each other, give each other a high five and then toss all of the tallies in the waste paper basket. They then turned on the television to hear the official results which, by law, can not be broadcast before 8pm.
Results: Hollande 28%, Sarkozy 25%, and LePen 20%.
French elections almost always take place in two parts. This was called the first round. Those two who amass the most votes, go at it again in 2 weeks.
I was obviously joking above when I said that the tallies were tossed in the garbage but it does make you wonder. I left the precinct at 7:30pm and results were still being counted. By 8pm, the winners and losers were being announced on national televison.
Hollande, who will most certainly win the second round, will need to run a marathon for the next five years less one kneecap. The Socialist will be inheriting a rotten economy and regularly meeting with his constituents who continue to believe that they should be able to retire at 60, receive welfare until one finds work or indefinitely, recieve all kinds of other services for free and of course that they shoudl be able to strike anytime, why, because it’s fun!
