The department of Hauts-de-Seine now has 997,732 voters, i.e. 10,985 more voters than in 2017. This means that 62% of the population of the territory is registered on the electoral lists. It remains to be seen what percentage of voters will turn out this Sunday for the first round of the presidential election.
In the 36 municipalities of the department, the 1,028 polling stations will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. With very large disparities linked to the size of the cities: Marnes-la-Coquette has only one polling station – the House of Swallows – for 1,253 voters, while Boulogne-Billancourt has 70 for 72,816 voters .
The counting will therefore begin at 8 p.m. in Hauts-de-Seine, as in Paris and in the other departments of the inner suburbs, while in the majority of cities in France, the ballot will be closed at 7 p.m.
The counting of the votes will be very fast in the cities equipped with voting machines, i.e. nearly a third of the municipalities: Antony, Boulogne-Billancourt, Colombes, Châtenay-Malabry, Courbevoie, Garches, Issy-les-Moulineaux, Sèvres, Suresnes , Vaucresson and Ville-d’Avray. This year, Bois-Colombes, given the age of its equipment, is forced to go back to the paper vote. Like the other cities, it will be necessary to wait at least until 10 p.m. to know the results.
High participation in 2017, low in 2002
In the first round in 2017, the participation rate was 82.1%, five points higher than at the national level. A score that will probably not be reached this Sunday, the latest polls establishing the French participation rate at 66%. That is less than the first round of 2002, which had already recorded a record of abstention for a presidential election with only 71.6% of voters. At the time, the department of Hauts-de-Seine had voted even less well, since 67.7% of voters had taken part in the ballot.
If the polls place Emmanuel Macron (LREM) and Marine Le Pen (RN) at the head of this first round, the results could be different in Hauts-de-Seine, as is regularly the case for a presidential election. Thus, in 2017, if Emmanuel Macron had come in ahead of the other candidates with 32.3% of the vote (against 24% at the national level), it was François Fillon (LR) who came second with 29.1% of the vote, ten points more than its national score. And Jean-Luc Mélenchon climbed to third place with 18.3% of the vote (19.6% national score), ahead of Marine Le Pen who obtained 7.6% of the vote (21.3% national score).