TRUE OR FALSE. Are there 10 million French people unregistered or incorrectly registered on the electoral lists, as Manon Aubry claims?

While the campaign for the European elections is launched, the head of the La France insoumise list Manon Aubry affirms that “10 million French people are not registered or incorrectly registered on the electoral lists”. It’s true, almost 12 million French people are affected.

The campaign for the European elections is now launched. The presidential majority has just appointed its head of list, Valérie Hayer, and the leader of the National Rally list, Jordan Bardella, launched his campaign during a meeting in Marseille on Sunday March 3. Voter participation is a crucial issue, with almost half of French people abstaining in 2019. In this context, the head of the La France insoumise list, Manon Aubry, alerts on franceinfo: “In our country, there are 10 million people who are incorrectly registered or not registered on the electoral lists, that’s 20% of the electorate”. True or false ?

Nearly 12 million French people are not registered or incorrectly registered on the electoral lists

It’s true, it’s even a little more. Almost 12 million French people are unregistered or incorrectly registered on the electoral lists, or 24% of voters. Unregistered people are people who have the right to vote but who are not registered anywhere. “Misregistered” people are registered in a city other than the one where they live. In detail, 4.1 million French people are not registered on the electoral lists and 7.8 million are incorrectly registered.

There are no official statistics for “misregistered” people in France. But a group of researchers have been working on the subject for almost twenty years, and published data after the presidential elections of 2012 and 2017. We contacted Jean-Yves Dormagen, professor of political science in Montpellier and president of Cluster17, laboratory of opinion studies, which shared with us the latest results obtained, after the 2022 presidential election.

Some 45% of 25-29 year olds are incorrectly registered

The researchers start from the presidential election participation survey, conducted by INSEE. This allows us to have solid data, because the results come from the payroll lists, in the prefecture, it is not a survey. To calculate the number of incorrectly registered voters, researchers compare the addresses where voters are listed and those where they are registered.

The high number of “misregistered” can be explained by the mobility of certain categories of voters. Young people and executives, in particular, move a lot and do not always take the necessary steps to register on the electoral lists in their place of residence. Some “45% of 25-29 year olds are considered poorly registered, compared to 6% of seniors”indicates Jean-Yves Domagen.

That “increases the risk of abstention”. It’s even “the main factor”, insists the researcher. In the 2022 presidential election, half of those who did not vote in the first or second round were incorrectly registered. Despite the 2016 reform, which allows people to register on the electoral lists up to six weeks before the election, the situation has not changed.