Nothing to question his re-election. From 58.55% on Sunday evening, Emmanuel Macron’s score in the second round of the presidential election is finally 58.54%. The reason ? The Constitutional Council, which announced the final results on Wednesday, canceled 20,594 votes “due to irregularities observed in 48 polling stations”.
The precise reasons for cancellation were noted in the field by nearly 2,000 magistrates and by delegates from the Electoral Control Commission, who organized hotlines “in order to deal with any difficulty concerning behavior likely to affect the ballot”. And they are very varied.
Lassalle “undermined the respect due to the dignity of electoral operations”
The 90 votes cast in Lourdios-Ichère (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) will not be taken into account following the stunt of Jean Lassalle, who staged his abstention within the polling station itself. The former presidential candidate “undermined the respect due to the dignity of electoral operations” and his gesture “is likely to alter the sincerity of the ballot in this commune”, castigate the magistrates. Questioned Wednesday evening by Sud-Ouest, the mayor of the village denounces an “unfair” decision. “No one was influenced, they didn’t see him vote. It’s really disrespecting us, ” castigates the elected official.
Voting in the confessional
In the small town of Cizancourt (35 inhabitants), in the Somme, the ballot took place in a church and the confessional served as a voting booth. Such a practice is prohibited, because it “is likely to undermine the freedom and sincerity of the vote”. In Molring (Moselle), no voting booth was even present. And this, “despite the observations made by the delegate magistrate of the Constitutional Council”. Each time, all the votes cast on the day were canceled.
Polling station without a manager…
In about fifteen places scattered all over France, only one or even no manager was present. However, article R42 of the Electoral Code is clear: at least two members of the polling station “must be present throughout the course of the electoral operations”. In the town of Harnes (Pas-de-Calais), an assessor regularly appointed by one of the candidates “was denied access to the polling station”.
… or closed too early
In Guinecourt (Pas-de-Calais) and Glux-en-Glenne (Nièvre), the only accessible polling station was closed well before the legal time of 7 p.m. (in this case, the magistrate noticed it at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. respectively). However, this is “likely to prevent voters from exercising their right to vote” when they wish on the day.
ballot box problems
Large cities are not spared. In a polling station in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, the ballot box was not locked and no padlock was installed. In Saint-Lon-les-Mines (Landes), another opening than the one planned made it possible to slip in a bulletin. However, these two irregularities are “of a nature to encourage fraud”.
Biased counts
In a polling station in Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales), in which 609 votes were cast, the counting of the votes was carried out “without reading the counted ballots aloud or counting the ballots as the counting progresses”.
In Salvetat-Saint-Gilles (Haute-Garonne), the results were modified “without any justification being provided”. Results, those appearing on the minutes were different from those from the tally sheets, in a “significant and unexplained” way. In Excideuil (Dordogne), the minutes of the voting operations were not even sent to the prefecture.