It is an election day unlike any other.
Two polls - the departmental and the regional - are organized this Sunday, a difficult task post-containment, with particular logistics for the municipalities of Ile-de-France and Oise.
Because who says two ballots says two ballot boxes and often double the voting booths.
Added to this is the need to respect sanitary rules.
An unprecedented context which, together with the summer weather in addition, partly explains the record abstention.
“Vote for who, for what?
»The eyes crinkle when we talk about the election to this bowler, who came to Ile aux Dames in Mantes-la-Jolie (Yvelines) to play with a friend.
For this abstainer, "disappointed by politics for forty years", there was no question of going to vote this Sunday.
A little further on, on a park bench, Belkacem is less categorical.
"I have always voted but this time, I do not know", admits this inhabitant of Buchelay, little motivated by the ballot.
Installed with a friend in the shade of a tree, he prefers to enjoy the sun and opens a beer: “In addition, it's my birthday today, I'm 75 years old.
"
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In Buchelay, the Leroy Merlin car park is as busy as usual.
"Oh, are we voting today?"
I just remembered that it was Father's Day, the elections, it's not my thing, slips Eric, 46 years old.
We came to buy two or three odds and ends for this afternoon, we have already planned to take advantage of the good weather in our garden and take care of our plants.
"For Émilie, mask on her face," the fear of Covid is still there, even if it is no longer psychosis like last year [for municipal officials] ".
The difficult search for assessors
For their part, the offices opened but not without difficulty, some mayors having had the greatest difficulty in having the required number of assessors. Because who says double ballot, says double polling station and therefore two separate teams. Leaflets, phoning, word of mouth, calls on social networks, they have tried everything to be complete.
In Vandélicourt, in the northeast of the Oise, the mayor (SE) Sandrine Braconnais even launched an SOS on the town's Facebook page, without much impact.
“Few volunteers showed up,” she admits.
Two out of eleven elected officials had to decline due to vacations or moving.
“So we called on spouses and children.
An elected official has a son of just 18 years old.
He motivated him.
And as that is still not enough, the mayor has planned to spend the day there, to spare the volunteers.
Read alsoRegional: what happens if there are not enough assessors?
In the big cities, the task has not been easier.
In Compiègne, for example, we went to great lengths to find the 310 assessors needed.
“We only got the account on Wednesday evening.
It was fair, but we got there!
“, We whisper to the mayor's office.
Two ballots, two ballot boxes
Since we vote twice, voters have to slip their ballots into two different ballot boxes for regional and departmental.
On the organizational side, the load is double for the assessors, recruited in large numbers to ensure the smooth running of operations.
In Montgeron (Essonne), for example, voters must make their way through a labyrinthine course, take out their identity card twice and go to the voting booth twice. “It just adds a little more work to us, but it's going to be fine,” commented an assessor. “This Sunday, only one person voted for the departmental but ignored the regional, notes an assessor in Massy (Essonne). But in general, people do the two together. "
