Automatic at 18
Young people who completed the citizenship census at 16 are registered automatically in the commune of their census when they turn 18. So are people who acquire French nationality.
✶ Next vote: presidential election, 18 April 2027
Envelope, booth,
« A voté ».
Every French citizen aged 18 or over may vote if registered on an electoral roll. Voting is on paper, on a Sunday, in the commune where you are registered, or by proxy if you cannot be there. Here is how.
Before
Get on
the roll.
Otherwise, register
Online on service-public.gouv.fr, by post or at the town hall, in the commune where you live, pay local taxes or have lived for six months. For an election, the town hall must receive your request by the sixth Friday before round one; the online deadline is a little earlier. Exceptions apply if you have just moved for work, turned 18 or been naturalised.
Check
The online "interroger sa situation électorale" service shows whether and where you are registered, and your polling station.
Check your registration ↗EU citizens
Citizens of other EU countries living in France may register to vote in municipal and European elections (on a separate list). They may not be mayor or deputy mayor, nor vote for senators (Constitution, Art. 88-3).
On polling day
From the door to « A voté »
Polls are open from 8:00 to 18:00; prefects may keep them open until 20:00 in large towns.
Step 1 of 7 · You
Find your polling station
It is printed on your voter card and shown by the online registration check. The card itself is not required to vote.
Step 2 of 7 · Polling-station staff
Show your ID
In communes of 1,000 inhabitants or more you must show photo ID (identity card, passport, driving licence and others; an expired ID card or passport is accepted up to five years past expiry). In smaller communes it may be asked for.
Step 3 of 7 · You
Take ballots and an envelope
Ballot papers for every candidate or list are laid out on a table, with envelopes. Take one envelope and several ballots (taking more than one keeps your choice private).
Step 4 of 7 · You
The booth
Going into the booth (isoloir) is compulsory. Put one ballot in the envelope. An empty envelope or a blank sheet is a blank vote: counted and reported separately, but not as a vote cast.
Step 5 of 7 · President of the polling station
The ballot box
At the transparent ballot box you show your ID again; the president checks you are on the list, you drop the envelope in, and the president announces « A voté ».
Step 6 of 7 · You
Sign
You sign the electoral register (liste d'émargement) next to your name. That signature is the record that you voted.
Step 7 of 7 · Voters
The count
When polls close (18:00, or 20:00 in many cities), volunteer voters count the ballots in public at tables of four; anyone can watch. The polling station's minutes go to the town hall and then the prefecture.
Can't be there?
Vote by
proxy.
Procuration
You can ask another voter to vote for you, without giving a reason. Since 2022 your proxy may be registered in another commune, but must vote at your polling station. Apply online at maprocuration.gouv.fr and confirm in person at a police station, gendarmerie or consulate, in good time before the vote. Each person may hold only one proxy made in France.
maprocuration.gouv.fr ↗No postal vote
France abolished postal voting in 1975. Apart from proxies, the only remote voting is for French citizens abroad in legislative and consular elections, who may vote online.
From abroad
French citizens registered abroad vote at consulates and embassies, by proxy, or (for legislative elections) online. They elect 11 deputies and 12 senators of their own. In the Americas, they vote on the Saturday, a day before metropolitan France.
Good to know
Small rules,
big habits.
- No early voting. Everyone votes on the day, a Sunday (Saturday in some overseas territories and the Americas).
- Paper, mostly. A small number of communes use approved voting machines instead of ballots and envelopes.
- Blank is not void. Blank votes have been counted separately since 2014, but they still do not count as votes cast, so they cannot change who wins.
- Silence from Saturday. Campaigning ends at midnight on Friday; no polls may be published until the last polls close. See the blackout checker.
- Turnout is not compulsory. Abstention has risen since the 1980s; in 2022, 28% of registered voters skipped the presidential run-off and more than half skipped round one of the legislative elections.