Following the first round of legislative elections in Toulon, two complaints were filed for contempt, while an incident had just been noted in front of a polling station on polling day.
Revealed by Mediapartthe incident occurred on Sunday June 12, 2022, La Beaucaire district in Toulon.
According to the online newspaper, members of the Voting Operations Control Commission were taken to task when they came to check the smooth running of the vote, which is its ordinary mission.
This incident is confirmed by the Toulon prosecutor’s office, which reports that“at least one individual asked, outside a polling station, the identity of the people who presented themselves”.
“Filtering”
This type of practice is irregular, because the verification of the identity of the person who votes is the responsibility of the president of the polling station and, according to article R60 of the electoral code, only his assessors can be associated with it.
A verbal altercation broke out following this reminder of the rules in force. “The members of the commission reported on this incident and, according to their testimonies, insults were uttered”continues the prosecution.
According to the minutes of three polling stations, n° 36, 37 and 38 of La Beaucaire, that Mediapart consulted, the members of this commission had just indicated that“no filtering could be tolerated at the entrance to the polling stations”.
According to our information, it was two women members of this commission who lodged a complaint, a magistrate of the judicial court, in this case one of its vice-presidents, and an employee of the Var prefecture.
In municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants, voting operations control commissions are established, responsible for verifying the regularity of the composition of polling stations, voting operations and the counting of ballots.
The town hall of Toulon: unrelated to a municipal agent
Deputy in charge of elections in Toulon, Christophe Moreno was well aware of an incident, “but outside the polling station, and even outside the school in which the vote takes place“. Above all, the altercation would have happened “with a person who is not a municipal official”, assures the chosen one. He takes as proof of the smooth running of the ballot the fact that “the delegates of other parties were present on the site and did not report any problem in offices 36, 37 and 38 of La Beaucaire”.
He goes further and believes that “no one is able to say if someone asked voters to state their identity, outside the polling stations“. The city of Toulon has 128 polling stations, out of about forty schools, in which “municipal staff are deployed to ensure the proper logistical operation of the election, bring meal trays and bottles of water to the offices, or even help a person with reduced mobility to move around”.
These personnel wear a “technical municipal officer” armband and in no case should be considered as security officers, underlines the elected official.
–
