It would be the main cause of the abstention of young people. And therefore the great evil of our century when we talk about any election. Coupled with other factors, poor voter registration has marred the results of the 2021 regional elections, marked by record abstention, especially among 18-24 year olds. So, to prevent some French people from having the feeling of “being robbed” of the presidential election, the NGO
Voted actively militates to sensitize the badly registered and the abstentionists.
“We created Voted the day after the second round of departmental and regional elections, which saw record abstention rates,” says Dorian Dreuil, co-president of the NGO. Appalled to see abstention among young people gaining ground, especially since the last presidential election in 2017, this member of the Observatory of Political Life as an expert associated with
the Jean Jaures Foundation decides to mobilize to try to stem the phenomenon.
To “participate in a more open democracy”
January 11, a few months after the crash regional elections and with a view to the 2022 presidential election, the founders of A voted are therefore launching – in partnership with Meta, West-France and 20 minutes –
a chatbot on WhatsApp to allow anyone to check if they are registered on the electoral lists, update their personal information according to their situation and add reminders of polling dates or deadlines for registering. “We launched this chatbot with the aim of participating in a democracy that is more open, more inclusive, and therefore where we vote,” explains Dorian Dreuil. And thus simplify the procedures and remove the obstacles to electoral participation, before
March 4, deadline for registration on the lists.
In 2017, 7.6 million people with the right to vote were considered to be incorrectly registered on the electoral lists, according to a study by The French journal of political science. Among them, one in two was between 25 and 29 years old. In the last presidential election, abstention reached 34% among 18-24 year olds and 40% among 25-34 year olds, according to
an Ipsos/Sopra Steria survey.