Elections: don’t leave it until the last minute!
We often hear people say that “voting is pointless”. Strangely enough, those who keep saying this are often the first to complain once decisions have been made. But before you start putting the world to rights at the bar or on Facebook, you do need to be registered on the electoral roll.
For a long time, the rule was simple: to vote the following year, you had to register by 31 December. Since 1 January 2019, the electoral roll has been permanent and it is possible to register up until the sixth Friday before the election. In other words, there is now a little more leeway. This is good news, of course, but not necessarily an invitation to wait until the last minute to suddenly discover a sense of civic duty.
Checking your registration or completing the process takes just a few minutes. Discovering, when the time comes, that you cannot in fact vote is likely to be a little more frustrating. Especially when you then have to spend the next five years explaining what elected representatives should have done. Because the right to vote did not just fall from the sky. In France, universal suffrage for men was introduced in 1848. Women, however, had to wait until the decree of 21 April 1944 to gain this right and voted for the first time in the local elections on 29 April 1945. In historical terms, therefore, it is not that long ago. And this right is far from being a given everywhere. In some countries, citizens still do not have genuinely free and pluralistic elections. Conversely, in other places, such as Belgium, Luxembourg or Australia, voting is considered important enough to be compulsory, with possible penalties for unjustified abstention.
In France, no one will force you to put a ballot paper in the ballot box. Everyone remains free to vote or not to vote. But there is a certain logic to it: to have a say, you first have to use your vote. It’s easy to grumble after the elections. Taking part beforehand is certainly more credible.
www.com-saint-martin.fr, ‘Registration on the electoral roll’ tab. Tel: 05 90 29 59 20.
Email: servicedeselections@com-saint-martin.fr
