Four questions on postal voting, presented by some as a solution to the rise in abstention

Remember: Sunday June 20, 2021, date of the first round of regional and departmental elections, the ballot boxes are shunned by 66.6% of French men and women, up to 87% abstention among 18-24 year olds, according to the Ministry of the Interior. A record: never had such abstention been known in the country. At the time, voices were raised to put the track of postal voting back on the table. According to an Odoxa-Backbone consulting poll for Le Figaro and franceinfo released four days after the first round, the implementation of Internet voting is approved by 78% of French people questioned and by 80% of people who abstained on Sunday June 20.

Today, postal voting is once again at the center of discussions, Wednesday 26 January. The bill aimed at restoring postal voting, defended by the MoDem deputy of Savoie Patrick Mignola, and the deputy of Yvelines Jean-Noël Barrot, is referred to the Law Commission. franceinfo takes stock.

1Where are we on the issue?

Abolished in 1975 in France, the MoDem bill aims to restore this possibility of postal voting. “Essential”, assures the rapporteur of the bill Jean-Noël Barrot “while the country is going through an unprecedented health crisis of which no one is able, today, to determine the duration.” The proposed law plans to allow voters to vote “either in a sealed envelope, or electronically by means of hardware and software allowing the secrecy of the vote and the sincerity of the vote to be respected.” Postal voting is “an effective democratic tool to fight abstention”, assure its defenders. No less than 45 deputies co-sign the bill. Currently, only French people residing abroad can vote by internet in legislative elections and for the councilors of French people living abroad.

On February 18, 2021, the government wanted to modernize the ballot, tabling an amendment on advance voting for the presidential election through voting machines. A device “very innovative” defended by the minister delegate in charge of Citizenship Marlène Schiappa in the hemicycle, which above all makes it possible to fight against growing abstention. “The voter will be able to vote in a municipality of their choice, up to a week before the ballot” she went on, with “one machine per department”. The voting machines will then be “locked, locked, with a ‘count’ on Sundays”. But this amendment was largely rejected by the Senate by 321 votes against 23.

And postal voting does not seem to be a track explored by the government for the presidential election. On January 11, Jean Castex launched a dialogue body with political parties and candidates. In this context, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin at the same time requested the Constitutional Council. The latter specifies: “No, it is not possible to vote for the election of the President of the Republic on the internet. Indeed, no legislative provision provides for this method of voting for the presidential election”, on its Presidential 2022 website online since Tuesday, January 25.

2Who defends the text?

In the wake of the regional and departmental elections, Richard Ferrand, President of the National Assembly, had launched an information mission, led by LREM deputy Stéphane Travert and LR deputy Xavier Breton, to fight against the low participation of the French in the elections. Among the 28 recommendations of the mission, unveiled on December 8, is the experimentation of postal voting and internet voting “in the next local elections or referendums of local initiative, in the voluntary communes.” The mission suggests“experimenting in a territorialized way with advance voting”. Finally, MEPs want “pursue the development of systems allowing, in the long term, to consider online voting for national elections, as well as cyber defense capabilities.”

The debate had already been well underway during the 2020 municipal elections. At the time, Rachida Dati, then Les Républicains candidate for mayor of Paris, pleaded for “the restoration of postal voting”.

A few months later, François Bayrou pushed, in November 2020, to set up postal voting in place for departmental and regional elections. “What is certain is that the debate must take place”, agreed for his part, Wednesday November 10, 2020 on franceinfo, Olivier Becht, the president of the Agir group in the Assembly. Also, another bill was tabled to this effect last September by the PS deputy for Saône-et-Loire Cécile Untermaier.

3Who rejects the proposal?

If the government seems skeptical, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin tells him “opposite” to this proposal. Other elected officials also criticize postal voting. Main reason given: the fraud that this system would allow. Florian Philippot, current leader of the Patriotes and presidential candidate, is against the proposal and defends “totally normal voting operations, without Pass, without postal voting”. Senator RN from Bouches-du-Rhône Stéphane Ravier also spoke out for the ban on postal voting, on January 16, during an intervention in the Senate.

For her part, Maud Bregeon, spokesperson for La République en Marche, estimated on January 10 that “moving around, going to a voting booth, allows you to vote in full conscience without being pressured by your relatives or your community (…) I consider that you do not elect a President of the Republic as you vote for Miss France.”

4Do devices exist elsewhere?

“The American example encourages us to roll up our sleeves”, declared Jean-Noël Barrot to the National Assembly last November. According to the rapporteur of the bill, the 2020 presidential election in the United States is an example to follow. In total, more than 100 million American voters voted in advance, a record. But postal voting has for months been the target of attacks from Donald Trump, who has been called a “corrupt system” by the former president. he had relayed unfounded information on Twitter that an electoral system, called Dominion, had “erased” 2.7 million votes in his favor across the country and had reallocated hundreds of thousands to his Democratic rival Joe Biden in Pennsylvania and other states. “November 3 election was the safest in US history”, replied the local and national authorities in charge of the security of the ballot.

In Germany, postal voting has existed since 1957, “where it was introduced to make it easier for elderly or disabled people to vote”, argue the rapporteurs of the law. In the 2017 federal election, 28.6% of votes were cast by mail.

In Switzerland, each voter is free to go to the polls or to vote by post. Ten cantons even offered electronic voting, but it has not been possible to do so since the summer of 2019. For its part, Estonia introduced it in 2005. Norway experimented with it, before abandoning it. in 2014 because voters were able to vote twice.