« If, next Wednesday, Donald Trump is proclaimed winner, he will not contest the November 5 election », wrote last week, Dominique Jamet in his weekly column! Donald Trump was proclaimed the winner and he did not contest this result, but on November 8, at the time of writing, we still do not know the results of Arizona, this state bordering Mexico and therefore particularly sensitive to the migration issue. Certainly, this will not change the result for Trump who has already obtained the majority to be elected president (270 electors out of the 538 in the United States), but it is not without intriguing the French that we are, accustomed to the counting of an election being “folded” just a few hours after the closing of the polling stations.
How, in fact, can we not be surprised that, in a State of barely 7.5 million inhabitants, four days after the election, this Friday morning, only 76% of the votes for the presidential election were stripped (giving, moreover, a good lead to Trump with 52.5%)? A state, moreover, where 81% of votes were cast by mail. Huge ! This surprises us but it also calls out to Donald Trump who does not hesitate to praise the merits… of France in this area! “ In France, they opted for ballots because postal voting did not work. It was corrupt. At 10 p.m., there are 37 million ballots counted and finished: they have a winner and a loser ».
Well, Trump is transforming history a bit in his own way: paper ballots have always existed in France and postal voting only existed from 1946 to 1975 and was a marginal, exceptional procedure, ” reserved for voters held far from their municipality of registration by duly established legal or professional obligations or constrained by irrefutable impediments, upon presentation of supporting documents “. In the 1967 legislative elections, only 1.57% of voters used this procedure. We are far from Arizona's 81%. But the fact remains – and here, Trump is right – postal voting has been abolished in France (except for people abroad or… in prison) because of the numerous frauds observed and which had been denounced to the Michel Poniatowski, the emblematic Minister of the Interior of Giscard d'Estaing. Also emblematic was the municipal election in Bastia in 1965, which was canceled in 1967 by the Council of State, notably (this was not the only reason) because of the discovery of ballots cast in the ballot box in the name of deceased voters and fake sick people. Hence, perhaps, the tenacious legend which wants the dead to vote in Corsica? But that's not the topic of the day…
Regardless, this compliment from Trump to France – one more! – reasons a bit like the computer's homage to the good old calculator and the flip chart that we unpack in our town halls and schools, on election nights, under the vigilant and suspicious gaze of scrutineers, counting and recounting ballots and envelopes, contesting the slightest ballot that is more or less torn or dog-eared. Well, by the way, what does Emmanuel Macron think today of postal voting, he who, in 2020 (it’s true in the middle of the Covid period) was not there “ not closed » when Darmanin was fiercely opposed to it and François Bayrou was in favor of it. “Sorry, but who is Mr François Bayrou, I don't know this guy? », whispers into the earpiece the man with the blond mane…
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