The French in Switzerland are called to the polls this weekend. After the dissolution of the National Assembly by Emanuel Macron on June 9, legislative elections were set up in record time. With, for the third time, an additional option for French people abroad: the possibility of voting online. After the legislative elections of 2017 and 2022, this is the third time that French people abroad have tried this exercise. And between obsolete profiles, overloaded servers and procedures that are too long for deadlines that are too short. Some procedures have not been easy.
To vote online, you must first be registered on the consular list. A list that currently includes 135,000 people in Switzerland. If your profile on the voting portal is up to date, no worries, in theory it will only take you a few minutes to vote. Which was not the case this week: the servers were saturated on several occasions. A situation that was quickly resolved according to Clément Leclerc, Consul General of France in Geneva:
If your profile was not up to date on the voting platform, you had until June 16, or 7 days, to communicate your details to the consulate. After this date it is impossible to vote online. A deadline that is certainly very short, but which is in accordance with the French constitution.
These short and exceptional deadlines did not prevent many French people living abroad from taking the necessary steps. In total, 410,000 voters registered and voted online, or a quarter of French people abroad. This use of online voting is significantly greater than in recent years.
French people in Switzerland had until Wednesday to vote online. The rest of the voters will be able to go to the polls in the constituencies of Fribourg, Lausanne or Geneva this Sunday. /crb
