“Proxies have become a gas plant,” laments Micka, who had received a proxy from her husband to vote on Sunday, during the first round of the presidential election. Like Micka, many of you have told us about mishaps when you wanted to vote by this means: proxies not received at the polling stations, confusion about the number of proxies that a voter can receive or polling stations uninformed of the rules. …
The Ministry of the Interior had this year decided to modify the rules, in particular by opening a site where voters could apply for a power of attorney online, before going to have it validated in a police station or a gendarmerie. It is still possible to fill out the form directly with the police.
“Fortunately the gendarmerie was still open”
Not all powers of attorney, however, arrived safely: at town hall on Sunday, Micka discovered that the power of attorney for her husband had not been received. The citizen ended up having a copy of the power of attorney after going to the gendarmerie, a copy thanks to which she was able to vote. “Luckily everything was in the same town, the gendarmerie was still open and I didn’t do it at the last minute to go and vote, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to make use of the power of attorney given to me. had been made,” she wrote.
Caroline was not so lucky. The student, currently on an “Erasmus internship”, had gone “at the end of November 2021” to have her power of attorney validated at a police station, in order to “get a head start”. She then received an email confirming her power of attorney given to her mother. Sunday morning, bad surprise: “my proxy was not registered anywhere and my mother could not vote for me. The young woman could not find a solution, because it was “impossible to contact the town hall on a Sunday”.
“I find this abnormal”
Myriam, a resident of Morbihan, wanted to vote for her daughter who lives in Peru: she also had the unpleasant surprise of discovering that the power of attorney had not been registered. “The mayor told me that I should have gone to the gendarmerie, to which I replied no, since it was a power of attorney issued abroad, she says. She assures me with great assurance that yes, “these are the rules” to the point of making me doubt. Myriam then finds out about the law: “If embassy, not [besoin de validation] of the gendarmerie,” she notes. Embassies can indeed issue powers of attorney for French nationals living abroad. “I find this abnormal,” says Myriam, who wonders: “How many people have not seen them vote? »
Another change that has created confusion, the number of proxies that a proxy can now receive: since this year, a voter can only vote for another person, if the power of attorney was established in France, specifies the Public Service site .
“A vote lost because of a lack of information”
A rule that caused mishaps for Elodie, who wanted to vote on Saturday in Martinique for the mother of her best friend and her son. Elodie first goes to the son’s polling station, where everything goes as planned. In the polling station of the mother, on the other hand, no trace of the power of attorney. It is while discussing then with her aunt that Elodie discovers that there can only be one power of attorney per person. “Why does the government site allow two proxies to be registered with my voter number and the police station validate both in my name? asks this voter.
She regrets “that no one informed us before the election, my friend’s mother would have had time to give power of attorney to someone else and could have exercised her right to vote” and deplores “a vote lost because of of a lack of information on the part of the whole system”.
Other voters, like Hélène, did not face these pitfalls: residing in the Netherlands, this voter had “missed the deadline to register on the consular lists” but ended up making her power of attorney at the embassy “late, Thursday 7”. “From the same evening, my status as well as that of my father to whom I gave my power of attorney were updated,” she adds. Her father then had no trouble voting for her on Sunday.
How many voters will choose to make a proxy for the second round, Sunday April 24? In 2017, 2.2 million of them had established a power of attorney for the second round, which already opposed Emmanuel Macron to Marine Le Pen, i.e. 600,000 more than for the first round, reports INSEE. Will the same dynamic be observed this year?
Discover the 2022 presidential election results by city, department and region over 20 Minutes.