“
And we thank the town hall of Avilly-Saint-Léonard which simply struck me off its electoral list when I had already voted twice.
I lost my right to vote for such an important election, I'm furious
”.
Pablo's message on Sunday evening on Twitter is far from isolated.
Like this inhabitant of Oise, many French people had the unpleasant surprise, on going to the polls in the first round of the presidential election, not to find their name on the list where they had nevertheless taken care to register.
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In the Oise, but also in Strasbourg, Marseille, or in Île-de-France, several thousand voters would thus be affected.
At the local court, some were able to catch up.
Others, like Ségolène, in Buthiers in Seine-et-Marne, did not have the courage to take the step.
They simply gave up.
Removed from the lists
In Saint-Ouen in Seine-Saint-Denis, there were dozens in this case.
On the certificate provided to the attention of the local court, where 47 of them went to appeal, most of the certificates indicated the same evasive reason, indicates
Le Parisien
: "
Error of the town hall
".
Saint-Ouen was not alone.
Creil in Oise, Villeneuve-Saint-Georges in Seine-et-Marne have reported a significant number of similar cases.
In Strasbourg, 200 inhabitants were prevented from voting, about ten without explanation.
Same thing in the northern districts of Marseille, where more than 200 people, according to the assessors interviewed by ActuMarseille, found themselves removed from the lists.
"
Apparently it's a problem with my mailbox when I haven't moved
,” Nabila told the local media.
Read also Electoral lists: the impact of poorly registered voters on participation?
Hiccups deplored by the teams of Jean-Luc Mélenchon on Sunday.
Seine-Saint-Denis, pool of votes in favor of rebellious France, seems to have been particularly affected.
"
A young man with his mother, who had nevertheless come to check before the deadline that the son was indeed registered automatically after having carried out his Citizen's Day
,
was refused the vote before my eyes
", reports Raquel Guarrido, former spokesperson for LFI in 2017, present at the town hall of Drancy on Sunday afternoon.
“
He was told: if you were registered at 18 rather than 16, registration is not automatic.
It makes no sense!"
.
A surfer from Bobigny tells
Le Figaro
that he had the same setback with his power of attorney.
A simple typo, a lack of information or organization could have changed the situation for the inhabitants of Seine-Saint-Denis.
“
The national service office sends the municipalities lists of names of young people who have carried out their census.
Provided that the marital status corresponds perfectly.
If there is the slightest discrepancy, the registration is not done
, ”explains a manager of the Bobigny centralizing office.
Conflicting versions
Whose fault is it?
Since 2019, the electoral lists have been brought together in a "
single electoral register
" managed by INSEE.
Registration is done in two ways.
On the voter's own initiative, via service-public.fr, or automatically.
After Citizen's Day, for example, all young people are registered immediately, via the Ministry of the Armed Forces.
Ditto following a naturalization, where Beauvau is responsible for transmitting the list of new French people.
In the event of a dispute modifying the status of the elector, the court is the transmitter.
Read also2017-2022: Macron, Le Pen, Mélenchon, how the three France have evolved
For write-offs, different causes can justify them.
They are automatic in the event of death or contradictory registration elsewhere.
But the municipalities can take the initiative themselves "
in the absence of municipal ties
", explains an INSEE expert.
“
The municipalities are responsible for verifying that this attachment exists, by paying taxes, or the presence of parents, valid until the age of 25.
If necessary, they delete the name
”.
In this case, the procedure requires informing the voter by mail within two days, allowing the decision to be challenged.
The rate is rather low: out of 48 million registrants, 226,000 have been deregistered at the national level since the regional in June 2021,
Figaro
.
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If the hiccups of the first round were also targeted, it is because the problem does not come from INSEE, but from the municipalities themselves, argues the national institute.
“
There are two contradictory versions
”, defends itself from the town hall in
Figaro
.
“
INSEE says it has received instructions from the town hall, but we have not carried out any deregistration on our own
,” she maintains.
While acknowledging in a press release the “
legitimate anger
” of the many disappointed, the municipality affirms that “
no voter has been struck off at the initiative of the municipal services
”.
The second round still playable
For the most courageous, the local courts, permanently on election days, were able to overcome the administrative flaw.
INSEE received 729 requests for information from judges across the country.
In Saint-Ouen, 47 people were re-registered by court order, and were able to vote
in extremis
.
The second round is therefore saved for those who appealed.
Others fall back on the legislative elections of June 12 and 19, where registration is open until May 6.
“
But you don't have to wait until the day of the second round to go see the judge!
“recalls the INSEE expert.
The institute also encourages people to take the public service “get informed” approach
,
widely consulted on the day of the first round, to find out about their electoral situation.
At the town hall of Saint-Ouen, a hotline has been set up.
In the meantime, the town has seized INSEE to identify what it describes as a “
computer bug
”.
"
We will communicate as soon as we know more
."
