PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2022. For the second round of the presidential election on April 24, voters will have the choice between Emmanuel Macron, Marine Le Pen, abstention, or the blank vote. How is this vote taken into account during the count? Explanations.
[Mis à jour le 14 avril 2022 à 16h40] On April 24, the French will be able to express their citizenship rights by going to the polls to elect the President of the French Republic during the second round of the presidential election. They may favor outgoing President Emmanuel Macron or his far-right competitor Marine Le Pen. But since the announcement of the results of the first round, many people claim not to recognize themselves in the political project of either of them. For those, three options remain: abstention, blank vote, or null vote.
Abstention corresponds to the fact of not going to the polls, and has already accounted for 26.3% of French people of voting age in the first round, or 12.8 million people. The blank vote consists of going to the polling station but slipping a blank ballot devoid of any name or placing an empty envelope in the ballot box. This gesture is seen as the demonstration of an interest in the political life of the country or the realization of its citizen act, but makes it possible to mark its dissatisfaction vis-à-vis the political offer, which did not convince. Finally, the null vote brings together the torn or annotated ballot papers. In the first round of the 2022 presidential election, 1.1% of people chose the blank vote, and 0.5% of the votes counted were invalid.
It should be kept in mind that the blank vote is a political choice unlike the invalid vote which is not counted and abstention which can reflect the inability to go to the polls or be a political act which can mean rejection. of an election more than that of the candidates. Among these three behaviors, only the blank vote is recognized, and this since the law of February 21, 2014, but be careful because if they are correctly counted during the counting, the blank votes are not taken into account in the votes cast and therefore in the result of the election.
Are the candidates for the presidential election in favor of the recognition of the blank vote?
Taken into account in the votes cast, blank votes would make it difficult to obtain an absolute majority of votes for candidates in the presidential election, or in other polls. So is the measure in the interest of the candidates? The answer is not obvious but campaigning for the recognition of the blank vote and above all promising the entry into force of the measure is the way to seduce voters. Knowing this, they are several to say they are in favor of the effective taking into account of blank votes: Anne Hidalgo, Yannick Jadot or Nicolas Dupont-Aignan. In 2017, Nathalie Arthaud and Jean Lassalle already approved the idea.
In January 2022, a few months before the presidential election, Anne Hidalgo reconfirmed her position on the blank vote but remained cautious about the conditions and deadlines for implementing the recognition of the blank vote. Precautions from which Jean-Luc Mélenchon is freed, who promised in a video published on January 12: “If you elect me, I will have the blank vote recognized”. However, the idea is not unanimous. In the opposing camp Emmanuel Macron indicated in 2019 during the great national debate that he had “thought a lot” about taking blank votes into account but that he “won’t do it.[t] not”.
What are the consequences of recognizing the blank vote?
“The President of the Republic is elected by an absolute majority of the votes cast”, specifies the French Constitution. Obtaining 50% + 1 of the votes cast is therefore the sine qua non condition for winning the presidential election, but if the blank votes are counted in the votes cast it will be more difficult for the candidates to collect the absolute majority of the votes. . And the question of what would happen to the ballot if no candidate obtained a majority because of the number of blank votes arises. In December 2021, the National Assembly’s fact-finding mission looked into the issue and concluded that with the recognition of the blank vote “the risk of an impasse is real, undermining confidence in the ability of our democracy to ensure the stability of institutions.” A few candidates have also taken up the subject, such as Anne Hidalgo and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who propose that in the event of the absence of an absolute majority in favor of a candidate, the election be canceled. A solution that would not really be one since no one would be named to succeed the outgoing president.
To find a solution to the elections with the taking into account of the blank votes, two options stand out: the organization of a new ballot or the change of the voting method to make the presidential election a relative majority election like the the Senate said in a 2013 report.
Towards a reform to take into account the blank vote?
The counting of blank votes in the election results is a long-standing request but it has still not found an answer. Neither the government nor the French institutions have seriously addressed the issue, but the tide has turned in 2021 since the abstention rate growing with each ballot questions the legitimacy of elected political figures, in particular when it comes to access to the highest office of the State: President of the Republic. A February 2021 bill notes that through abstention “the people mean they no longer have the voice to revolt democratically, nor the power sufficient to fundamentally change the course of our history.”
Several solutions to counter the massive recourse to abstention have been proposed, including the effective recognition of the blank vote and it is on this point that the bill insists because the measure becomes “urgent and imperative”. The project also takes over from what was initiated by the law of February 21, 2014 by proposing in its first article that blank votes “take into account for the determination of the votes cast during the first and second rounds”. The February 2021 bill goes further and suggests that new electoral rules be instituted “in the event of not obtaining an absolute majority”. However, the bill was not adopted and is still at the proposal stage.
The blank vote, what conditions to count it?
The blank vote is strictly understood as a blank ballot free of any mention whatsoever or an envelope inside which no ballot has been slipped. These two options are the only ones that allow a blank vote to be considered and counted during the count. Several pitfalls must therefore be avoided: put several ballots in the envelope, put a scribbled or torn ballot or even a document that is not an official ballot. Such ballots are simply recognized as spoiled votes and may imply an error on the part of the voter.
Unlike the nominative ballots of each candidate, the blank ballots are not officially provided by the polling stations. Thus, voters who wish to use them must bring them with them. Article 1 of the 2014 law provides that “an envelope containing no ballot is assimilated to a blank ballot.” Furthermore, theArticle L.49 of the Electoral Code states that “the distribution of blank ballots by private individuals is prohibited on polling day.”
Is the blank vote taken into account in the election results?
If they are counted, the blank votes are not taken into account in the results of the ballots, even in the presidential election. The law of 21 February 2014 was only a first step towards the recognition of the blank vote and since then the project has been at a standstill. According to the text, the current “recognition” of the blank vote simply implies that “blank ballots are counted separately and attached to the minutes.” They are “specially mentioned in the results of the polls” but they do not appear among the votes cast. The taking into account of the blank vote is in reality only a facade because if it is presented as a recognized political choice, the blank vote has no weight at the end of the ballot.
Is the hope of a reform to take into account the blank vote still allowed? Remember, shortly after the yellow vests crisis, Emmanuel Macron opened the door, integrating the subject into the great national debate. Neither the actual counting of the white vote nor the famous RIC, the citizens’ initiative referendum, was finally retained at the end of the debates, on the contrary of a significant proportional share in the legislative elections or the drop in the number of parliamentarians.