Quite a few of us voted (well, myself and three others I know) in the first round for someone other than Jospin and none of us will vote against Royal this time because of what happened.
When you vote absentee in France, it's not like in the US where you just mail in your ballot from wherever you are and it gets counted in the state you used to live. You give your vote to someone you trust to go and vote for you by "procuration," and that person needs to be registered in the same commune as you.
Important thing is trust. You give your vote, and you count on that person to vote the way you want them to. In my case this time, I changed from 2002 the person, and I know very well the person who's voting for me would not vote for someone other than Royal. That's part of the deal. But at least, I am 100% sure he will vote, which wasn't totally the case last time (though she told me she did later...)
It's sort of a pain. One has to sign a procuration form, in front of an official who is authorized to do procurations (like someone at city hall if you are in France but won't be for the vote, or a consular officer). This sounds relatively easy but if you don't happen to live anywhere near a consulate and it's been a year or more since you've been back in France, it's not as easy as it sounds. I live in Minneapolis and we had someone show up one day at the Alliance Francaise to take them for us, "notarizing" them properly and forwarding them to the consulate. But if I couldn't make it to see him, this would mean I'd likely need to go to Chicago. Big pain. (It's worse for my wife - she made the mistake of changing her voter registration when she registered as an expat at the consulate, and now she needs to vote in Chicago or find a french person there who'll vote for her...) Fai de bčn a Bertrand, te lou rendra en cagant
Geez, I was going to respond to Marek with some snarky nonsense about Frenchy crop circles but decided to err on the side of maturity instead. But after reading this comment, I've gotta say, crop circles sound rather reality-based in comparison. Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -Voltaire
I used it here in Drew's diary about smoking, to signify I wasn't going to get into an fight about smoking again.
I suppose redstar was just saying he wasn't into a debate about the merits or demerits of proxy or absentee voting systems...
Apologize if I misread your comment. I did not take it as intended. Fai de bčn a Bertrand, te lou rendra en cagant
In Spain, absentee voting is just postal voting. I actually liked it so much while I was in the US that I decided to register to vote by mail in the UK local elections, too. "It's the statue, man, The Statue."
