The queue stretches to the front of the police station, a rather unusual image in Besançon: about fifteen people waiting to have their power of attorney validated. “I do it at the last moment but I just remembered that it was Sunday, my polling station is far away, I’m too lazy to move, and I saw on the public service website that I could still doing it so I’m taking a break from my work to come“explains Ionna, who is waiting in line.
“I have prepared everything to optimize the time“explains Dimitri, a student. He made his power of attorney online, on the government website: maprocuration.gouv.fr, all he has to do is have his identity validated at the police station.
It takes much less time than before, when everything was in paper format : a few minutes against a quarter of an hour per person. The queue is quickly reduced and the police are used to this crowd, explains the divisional commander Sylvain Leblanc: “Over the last few days, it’s like that for each election, people are much more numerous. In Besancon, more than 2,000 proxies have already been made. A significant figure, but not unusual.“
In theory, one can give power of attorney until the day before the election, therefore, until Saturday. In practice, it is better to do it in advance: the time that the polling station is notified.