“Do you know if you are registered on the electoral lists or not at all? Is this the first time you vote? Do you want to check with us?” This is one of the challenges of this campaign for the presidential election: the fight against abstention. And as the election approaches, initiatives are multiplying to encourage citizens to register on the electoral lists.
>> Is the presidential election in 2022 threatened by the record abstention that affects the other elections?
Today in France there are about three million unregistered people, and some six million “poorly registered”, that is to say those who live in a municipality other than that in which they are registered. A phenomenon that particularly affects young people, automatically registered at 18, but who often do not know that they must re-register after leaving the family home.
It is a major democratic challenge that Meryl, Aurore and Emma, the three volunteers of the NGO, are trying to take up. “Voted”, which carries out door-to-door operations all over France. “Just send an SMS to know if you are registered or not!”, boasts a volunteer with Faharya, a young woman they canvassed. Because to facilitate the process, the NGO has created a chatbot on the WhatsApp mobile application. Thus, qa few clicks later, the verdict is in: Faharya is registered in a polling station that does not correspond to her place of residence.
From door to door, one thing stands out: the majority of young people here are poorly registered. It is also the case of Loryska, 19 years old, badly registered by ignorance of the electoral system, but not only: politics does not interest her much.
“We don’t really follow politics, so inevitably, we take what comes and then we try to analyze the different parties, but without giving them great importance.”
The presidential election also leaves Myriam, administrative assistant, unmoved: “I go where the wind takes me she advances. And then everyone makes their own decisions. I’m really not interested in it… and I live like that, what…”
“There is a disinterest, confirmed Dorian Dreuil, the co-president of the association. As if finally, there was a disenchantment with politics, as if the campaign had not even started, whereas it takes place in a few weeks. Our mission is to arouse interest in the vote, because democracy as modern as we hope in France cannot leave aside as many voters who have the right to vote. Young people between the ages of 25 and 30 represent half of the six million poorly registered voters in France.
Operation “Voted!” : report by Boris Loumagne
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