A confusing error message. Since the opening, on Friday May 27 at noon, of the online voting of French residents abroad for the general elections, hundreds of them have not been able to choose their candidate on the Internet, for not being able to validate their ballot. informed of the problem, Ministry of Foreign Affairs explains that this concern only pertains to users of certain mailboxes, and that no solution has yet been found. While there is only until Wednesday June 1 to vote online, some voters are criticizing this system that they have been impatiently awaiting.

This is the case of Agathe Chaigne, who tried to vote from Utrecht (The Netherlands), where she settled in early 2022. “I am very upset, but I was excited to vote onlineentrusts to franceinfo the young adjunct university professor. It’s a great advantage for people, it makes voting accessible.” But from the Netherlands to the United States, passing through Thailand, Spain or the United Kingdom, voters have reported a similar problem to franceinfo: after identifying themselves and choosing their candidate, some do not receive the validation code, essential to confirm their vote. . online.

“I understood that it was because my email is on Yahoo!, says Agathe Chaigne, that’s what everyone noticed on social media.” The information has since been confirmed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which responded to certain voters that this error only affected mailboxes hosted by the US company Yahoo, including the AOL service. “In the digital age, how can such a system be lost? asks Jipe Gerardin, a web developer and artist who has lived in England for twenty-one years. It’s a 20-year setback.”

Contacted by franceinfo, the Quai d’Orsay explained on Saturday night that this technical error had not manifested itself during the two large-scale tests organized in recent months. “Support teams are currently working to fix this issue, the ministry says. Voters have been notified and will be notified again whenwill be resolved.

In the meantime, interested French residents abroad hope that a solution will be found before Wednesday, when the online voting service will be officially closed. For many, the alternatives proposed by the French authorities (come to vote at the polls, vote by proxy or by mail) are not satisfactory. Nine months pregnant agathe chaigne “rather unwilling” to travel to Amsterdam, for example. In England, this technical error upsets the plans of Jipe Gerardin, unable to make a power of attorney. “If it is not resolved in time, I will be one of the abstainers despite myself”he regrets.

At the moment, it is difficult to determine the number of voters affected by this problem. In some districts it is close to 10% of those registered on the lists. “In San Francisco, 12.8% of voters use Yahoo!”, For example, Loïc Le Gland, consular adviser in California, explains to franceinfo that he fears that this concern will inflate abstention. Even in the United States, Julien Cavanagh, an advisor to the French living abroad based in Boston, Massachusetts, points out that constituencies abroad are sometimes gigantic. “At home, for example, some have to drive five hours to vote in person in Boston, it’s hard to bear, he warns. They would do it for the presidential election, but it is much less certain for the legislative ones.”

Embarrassed, some voters even rebel and have no intention of stopping there. This is the case of Jhonny Blamoutier, a resident in Spain for more than twenty years, who is thinking of claiming “the nullity of the vote for non-compliance with the principle of equity”. Contacted by franceinfo, several candidates running in foreign constituencies said “consider taking legal action” if online voting does not become fully functional quickly, to request an extension – even a new vote.