An American in Provence

Sunday morning, Alain and I returned to vote for the first round of the Legislative elections.

Geez French, how long do you have to drag this process along for?

Presidential campaigning, first round, more campaigning, second round, change of power, campaigning for the Legislative elections along with the flyers "I have (Presdential candidate's) support!", first round, more campaigning, second round.

From a 30 minute wait for the first round of the presidential election, to 10 minutes for the second round, to 0 minutes for the first round of the Legislatives, it seems like turn out is becoming less and less. Well duh. Want high turnout for the legislative election? How about holding it ON THE SAME DAY as the presidential election?

But French seem to have a need to know how the presidential election turned out before voting for the legislature.

One day, I swear I'm gonna buy a book "French government for dummies".

But still, I don't reckon it is any more difficult than trying to explain the US Electoral College. Uh, well, you see, each state has a certain number of electors, and they are supposed to vote according to the winning popular vote, but they are not obligated to, except for in some states, and uh, well Wikipedia it.