This is one of the fears of the mayors linked to the coronavirus for the day of the municipal elections: to be in lack of assessors or tellers. Five days before the first round scheduled for Sunday, March 15, the Minister of the Interior sent all mayors a circular, dated Monday and which we have obtained, to make recommendations to them in order to have the required number of staff.
Let’s first take a look at the electoral code: we read in article R44 that each polling station (there are nearly 70,000 in France) must be composed of “a president, at least two assessors and of a secretary ”. It is most often the candidates who themselves choose assessors from among their activists. But each of them must be voluntary.
Already some cancellations
Some have already backed off for fear of being contaminated by Covid-19 which has already caused the death of 33 people in France. "On my list, I have no withdrawals, but another candidate told me that she had," says Philippe Laurent, mayor of Sceaux and secretary general of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF). Senator Philippe Dallier, as of March 2, reported a "first withdrawal" in his town of Pavillons-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis). "What worries me is above all that assessors withdraw without warning and that we find ourselves in want on Sunday morning," he told us.
First withdrawal of an assessor at the Pavillons-sous-Bois. I don't want to take risks at 70 ... It will be complicated at the polling stations.
- Philippe Dallier (@philippedallier) March 2, 2020The electoral code provided for this scenario. "The missing assessors are taken from the municipal councilors and, failing that, from the voters present", we read in the same article R44. The choice is made in the following order: "the elector the oldest if an assessor is missing, the oldest and the youngest if two are missing, the two oldest and the youngest if there is one three are missing, the two older and the two younger if four are missing ”.
In his circular, Christophe Castaner asks the mayors, "in order to anticipate any difficulty" linked to a lack of assessors, to "get closer to the candidates in order to identify possible substitutes likely to be present", and also " to identify a pool of municipal councilors or voluntary voters ”. In theory, the assessors must be "appointed no later than Thursday March 12 at 6 pm".
A lack of assessors tolerated
Requisitions are therefore provided as a last resort, at least in theory. Because, in practice, they are very rare. The Constitutional Council also judges that voting operations can "continue" when a polling station is held by only one or two people, but the person in charge must call the prefect to find a solution. This “is not such as to affect the sincerity of the ballot, since it does not result from the investigation, and moreover is not alleged, that such absences would have had the purpose or effect of favor fraud ”, specified the Constitutional Council in another decision rendered in 2002.
Concerning the office presidency, it must be occupied by the mayor in person, by a municipal councilor, or by a municipal employee. "Otherwise, you will appoint the president of an office among the voters of the town," says Christophe Castaner. And "any member of the municipal council who refuses to exercise this function without valid excuse can be dismissed ex officio by the administrative court", warns the minister.
Once the voting day is over, the ballot boxes must still be counted. These are the tellers who then appear, arranged in groups of four around the table. They are chosen from among the voters who came to vote during the day. This is why you are regularly asked, when you slip a ballot in the ballot box, if you are ready to return in the evening. The count is public, so those who simply wish to attend are allowed to do so.
The tellers, "we will find some"
Christophe Castaner indicates that "the wearing of gloves, apart from that it could hinder the counting operations, is not recommended from a health standpoint". Several elected officials planned to make them available to reassure volunteers. They must, however, be able to "wash or disinfect their hands regularly during the counting operations", we read in the circular.
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There is less concern regarding the "recruitment" of tellers. Each polling station receives 700 voters on average, and 1000 at most. Even if abstention generally amounts to just over 35% in a municipal election, there is still a large enough pool to have at least four volunteers for the count. "We will find some," wants to believe Philippe Laurent.
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