Local Voting, French Style ( as described, in brief, by an American Observer.)

-No pics of this as I felt uncomfortable about it...

*****Disclaimer....There may be mistaken info below as I have gotten my info from various people that I know.

Read The Wall Street Journal's article if you are interested;

http://www.wsj.com/articles/ruling-socialists-suffer-setback-in-french-local-elections-1427062540?mod=europe_home

-Hollande passed a decree that there must be "parity" between the sexes so there must be an equal number of men and women in each district running. Every poster shows a man and a woman...even if one is a lousy candidate, you get both if you vote that ticket.

-You vote for the party, not individual candidates...
so you have ( my descriptions) ;
-Hollande's Party ( Left) called> ...socialists, basically. ...everyone seems to be angry and tired of this in my area.
-Sarkozy's party ( Right) > called UMP   basically like our Republican's ( many people in my town are going this way)
-National Front ( far right) > NF   Marine Le Pen the leader...considered too radical by many but seem to be gaining popularity...they are anti-immigration for one thing.
- and there is another party that I didn't even know about thill yesterday. Perhaps they are like a Ralph Nader party.
I have no idea.


So, there are 2 rounds. In the first you have the 4 parties....there is a card ) maybe 4" x 5" with the name of the party on it. ( I didn't see the card exactly. I saw the piles from afar.) You sign in( show your ID...and why not?????)  and pick whatever card you want...in S's case, he picked all 4 so that the women at the desk would not know who he voted for. Some people just go and pick the card that they will vote for.

You can't vote for one person from this party or one person from another party...it's strictly voting for the party. Then you go in the usual curtained encloser and put the card you choose into a light brown envelope. Then you put the envelope into a clear box, like a lotto situation. ..a big red book sits atop the slot wherein  you put the envelope.

Then you sign out. and that is it for the first round.

In a couple of weeks (?) there will be a 2nd vote. 2 parties will be eliminated because of low votes and the other 2 will go tete a tete....
In this next vote, you vote for who you DON"T want to win...Kind of like Survivor!

stayed tuned for that....I hope I will be here for that too.

Looks like the Right ( Sarkozy / UPM ) were the big winners in my area...and also the National Front did very well, especially in Nice.