It is this Sunday March 15 that the first round of the municipal elections will be held. And, among local oddities, this town stands out for its astonishing number of voters…
From the evening of March 15, eyes will be focused on a certain number of cities following the result of the first round of municipal elections: will Rachida Dati succeed in bringing Paris back into the hands of the right? Will Jean-Michel Aulas really crush Grégory Doucet in Lyon as the polls predict? Will Benoît Payan remain at the head of Marseille? Elsewhere in the country, certain cities are also distinguished by a funny peculiarity: having more voters than inhabitants! This is the case of this very popular municipality in summer…
This is a situation which, on paper, may seem mathematically impossible. But it is actually quite common in popular tourist towns. This is therefore the case in this renowned seaside resort, as noted by the Figaro Magazine in his report entitled Overtourism is coming to the countryside. A phenomenon which can be explained by the rules of the French Electoral Code. For INSEE, a resident is a person who resides year-round (main residence) in the municipality. On the other hand, to be a voter, it is not obligatory to live there permanently! Two major conditions allow you to register on the electoral lists of a municipality: real residence (living there at least 6 months per year) and taxpayer status.
This is where everything plays out. Any person who pays local taxes – property tax or housing tax on second homes – in the municipality for at least 2 years without interruption has the right to register to vote. So, this is how Lège-Cap-Ferret (in Gironde) ends up with more voters than inhabitants. The municipality, which faces Arcachon and the famous Dune du Pilat, has an extremely high rate of second homes (often estimated at more than 60% or 70% of the total real estate stock).
Many owners, although living and working in Bordeaux, Paris or elsewhere the rest of the year, choose to register to vote on the peninsula. “Thanks to them, Lège-Cap-Ferret has the rare distinction of having more voters (9000) than year-round inhabitants (a little less than 8000)“, says the magazine.
This “surplus” of voters is not fraud in the eyes of the law and the voting rules. It is a legal application of the right to vote linked to the local tax contribution. However, this creates a particular political challenge: elected officials must satisfy both the needs of year-round residents (schools, public services) and the expectations of secondary residents who represent a major part of the electorate.
