My principle is that is someone can be expected to be affected by the decisions of a territory-based elected institution, then s/he should be part of the democratic body. To express that in a simpler way: voting rights based on residence over some period of time.
It follows from that that I am little troubled by people with multiple residences voting in multiple local elections: they are affected by all (and in all likelihood, are also paying taxes to all).
However, I am sorry something else also follows which some of the expats on ET won't like: I am troubled by expat voting from abroad. I don't think it's right to grant someone the right to influence the government of an area based on a sentimental attachment when they won't suffer the results, while an immigrant living there for years (and paying taxes) has to be just a sitting duck. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Then again, how many EU countries are we speaking of? Two or three? *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
They had little choice: or else, they would have to synchronise the local elections electoral calendar across Europe, and force countries/states already allowing votes in multiple local elections nationally/regionally to remove that right.
Meanwhile, the French system is still not clear to me: how exactly does it prevent registration for multiple local elections? Is there a field on the registration form where you have to declare that you won't vote elsewhere (similar to those discussed for EP elections)? And/or is there communication between local election authorities? *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
In 1998 they had introduced automatic update of voter lists with the military census (obligatory for all 17 yo in France), which I did in a town, yet also renewed my ID in my parents town and wound up in two voter lists ; by the next year one of the two municipalities had wrote me off their list. Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
European Parliament - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Under the Rome Treaties, the Parliament should have become elected. However the Council was required to agree a uniform voting system before hand, which it failed to do. The Parliament threatened to take the Council to the European Court of Justice leading to a compromise whereby the Council would agree to elections, but the issue of voting systems would be put off till a later date.[15]
That is, already the requirements of the Treaty of Rome were not met, or met late and under duress - never mind what seems to be a similar problem with Maastricht.
