{"id":31083,"date":"2019-02-06T16:12:53","date_gmt":"2019-02-06T15:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=31083"},"modified":"2019-02-06T16:12:53","modified_gmt":"2019-02-06T15:12:53","slug":"french-politics-a-voting-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/french-politics-a-voting-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"French Politics – A voting debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an earlier post<\/a> on the protests in France by les Gilets Jaunes<\/strong> (the Yellow Vests)<\/em>, I talked about President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s plans for a grand d\u00e9bat national<\/strong> (a great national debate)<\/em> to uncover what is driving the ongoing unrest. One of the topics that has emerged from those discussions caught my attention.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Le vote blanc<\/strong> \/ The blank vote<\/em><\/p>\n

The French have historically taken their voting rights very seriously (voting in France takes place on Sunday so that people, as a general rule, don\u2019t have to miss work to vote). In recent nationwide elections though, voter turnout has been at historic lows (less than 50% of registered voters voted in the 2017 parliamentary elections). One reason for this low turnout, selon certaines personnes <\/strong>(according to some people<\/em>), is the fact that les votes blancs<\/strong> (blank votes; <\/em>essentially votes for no one\/none of the above) are not counted in the official tallies.<\/p>\n

Here are a few other posts where you can learn more about French elections.<\/p>\n

Click here for some useful election vocabulary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Click here for a look back at the 2016 presidential primaries<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And click here for a funny story<\/a> about how John mixed up his election-related vocabulary.<\/div>\n

D\u00e9passer le 50% <\/strong>\/ Passing 50%<\/em><\/p>\n

Since 2014, the number of bulletins blancs <\/strong>(blank voting cards<\/em>) is counted and reported out separately form votes for candidates, but they are not counted in the calculation of the percentage of votes a candidate received. In France, particularly in presidential elections, a candidate must get at least 50% (really 50.1%) to be elected. Calculating that 50% seuil<\/strong> (threshold)<\/em> is only calculated by counting the total number of votes for actual candidates, ignoring any votes blancs<\/strong>. In the election that brought the current president to power, almost 9% of the votes registered were blancs. <\/strong>So while un vote blanc<\/strong> is a legitimate (legal) option, and a high percentage of bulletins blancs<\/strong> should give any politician pause, they don\u2019t carry any real political force.<\/p>\n

You can see un reportage <\/strong>(a news report) <\/em>on the subject (en fran\u00e7ais<\/strong>) here<\/a> .<\/p>\n

Un peu d\u2019humour pour finir<\/strong> \/ A little fun to finish up<\/em><\/p>\n

Those of you who have been reading me for a while may recall my many references to la tante Rose qui vie au Qu\u00e9bec<\/a><\/strong> (my aunt Rose who lives in Quebec).<\/em> Well this week Rose was featured in a local news program talking about her weekly trips to la<\/strong> piscine municipale<\/strong> (public swimming pool)<\/em> o\u00f9 elle pratique la natation plusieurs fois par semaine <\/strong>(where she swims a number of times each week<\/em>).<\/p>\n