5 ms·

How many elections occur at the same time in France? I've heard that in European elections, you tend to vote for one person at a time, where in the US, it's pr

How many elections occur at the same time in France? I've heard that in European elections, you tend to vote for one person at a time, where in the US, it's pretty routine to vote for three or more. (In presidential years, you vote for presidential electors, a representative, and 2/3 of the times a senator, and then beyond that there are state and local elections.) I'm wonder how much of the difference comes from counting one versus multiple elections at the same time.

lesquivemeau 5y ago
During presidential elections you only vote for the president, then you vote for part of the parliament during "les législatives", 2 months after. On the other end, some local elections take part at the same time (ex: regional and departmental)
dathinab 5y ago
In Germany for the major votes you have two votes, then there are often also additional votes bundles in, so 3 or 4 votes in one setting are not uncommon. There are no voting machines. And it, in general, works without problems. (Mail in voting is possible but not used that much.)
JAlexoid 5y ago
It's fast, easy and low cost - that's what matters. And it depends, often elections don't coincide and the election process is just a few weeks long.
klaustopher 5y ago
Not sure about France, but next door in Germany we try to put multiple elections on the same date, because organizing the polling stations is always the most expensive thing. So it's not uncommon to have some of city mayor, city council, regional, state and federal and European elections fall onto the same date. I think the "worst" I've seen as a volunteer was 4 elections on the same day. Counting process starts by splitting the ballots (if we have all of them in one urn), and then counting and tallying them one election at a time. The ballots are distinguished by different colored paper. One voting district is usually around ~1000 voters, out of those, before Covid ~10-20% did mail-in-voting, during Covid it was ~40-50%. Then with a normal voter turnup of around 60-70% depending on the elections that are held, we end up with a few hundred ballots to count per election, with a staff of normally 8 people... Polling stations close at 6pm, and the latest I have left the voting station after counting was 8:30pm.
lou1306 5y ago
Just in 2018, the Italian regions of Lazio and Lombardy had three elections together: 2 nationals (representatives/senators) plus the regional elections. And within a political system that is much much more fragmented than the US one. Still, it was all done on paper, and we got the results overnight. It's not rocket science, really.

lesquivemeau 5y ago

During presidential elections you only vote for the president, then you vote for part of the parliament during "les législatives", 2 months after. On the other end, some local elections take part at the same time (ex: regional and departmental)

dathinab 5y ago

In Germany for the major votes you have two votes, then there are often also additional votes bundles in, so 3 or 4 votes in one setting are not uncommon. There are no voting machines. And it, in general, works without problems. (Mail in voting is possible but not used that much.)

JAlexoid 5y ago

It's fast, easy and low cost - that's what matters. And it depends, often elections don't coincide and the election process is just a few weeks long.

klaustopher 5y ago

Not sure about France, but next door in Germany we try to put multiple elections on the same date, because organizing the polling stations is always the most expensive thing. So it's not uncommon to have some of city mayor, city council, regional, state and federal and European elections fall onto the same date. I think the "worst" I've seen as a volunteer was 4 elections on the same day. Counting process starts by splitting the ballots (if we have all of them in one urn), and then counting and tallying them one election at a time. The ballots are distinguished by different colored paper. One voting district is usually around ~1000 voters, out of those, before Covid ~10-20% did mail-in-voting, during Covid it was ~40-50%. Then with a normal voter turnup of around 60-70% depending on the elections that are held, we end up with a few hundred ballots to count per election, with a staff of normally 8 people... Polling stations close at 6pm, and the latest I have left the voting station after counting was 8:30pm.

lou1306 5y ago

Just in 2018, the Italian regions of Lazio and Lombardy had three elections together: 2 nationals (representatives/senators) plus the regional elections. And within a political system that is much much more fragmented than the US one. Still, it was all done on paper, and we got the results overnight. It's not rocket science, really.