Overseas citizens
People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election . Otto von Bismarck
One million French voters live outside France. This is 2.2% of the 46 million French who are eligible to vote. In the recent presidential election, 400,000 overseas French voted, or 40%. This level is half of the 80% of French voters who passed the urns in France to vote for president in 2012. This could be due to a greater sense of apathy among French expats or the fact that you have to get to the French embassy or closest consulate in your country of residence to vote, or someone has to get there for you, if you decide to vote by proxy. Absentee voting in France is illegal, so that means someone, you or a proxy friend have to show their face to vote. Obviously in some less developed countries, getting there may be very difficult if you live far from the embassy/consulate.
Like in France, expats vote on Sunday, except in North America, where they vote on Saturday. I suspect this difference is to respect America's sense of impropriety about voting on the Sabbath day (unless you are Muslim or Jewish!). But Saturday sure beats the heck out of Tuesday, in terms of convenience, and Sunday is great too.
And things are looking up for this group of voters. For the first time in France's history, 10 members were added to the lower Chamber of Deputies (like the US's House of Representatives) to represent French citizens living outside France. The world map was divided up into 10 voting districts according to French expat population numbers.
And another first this year: overseas French could vote for their new legislator by internet. So, from the comfort of my home, after registering with the French consulate, receiving a user name and password by mail and SMS, I voted. The whole thing takes about three minutes, assuming you already have studied the candidates. You even get a 10-digit code when you finish, which you can input on the federal government voting website to confirm your vote was counted! You are implored to keep this code handy in case of a recount. Impressively, 57% of the expat French voters used this brand new internet system for the first round of voting for legislators.
So, I now have a French congressperson representing my interests as an expat citizen living in China. What a cool concept!
Can you imagine the United States having the foresight to add members of congress to represent its 5,000,000 plus expat citizens? I didn't think so"Can any French person imagine their government farming out this website and voting system to private vendors in order to lower costs and avoid hiring government employees? Je ne croix pas"
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