ELECTORAL LISTS
It took me an hour to get registered! And I'm not sure I'll vote

During this electoral registration period, which will close in forty-eight hours, speeches abound on the harms of abstentionism and compulsory voting. A serious matter of knowing whether voting is a duty or a right and whether abstaining is not, in many cases, a way of expressing an opinion!
A simple voter, a tiny piece of sovereign universal suffrage, I did not lose myself in general considerations when, this morning, in a town hall corridor, I waited for the office where registrations are received to open. It was half-past nine; worried, I ask:
- How long will we have to wait in this corridor?
- Thirty to forty minutes; It starts at ten o'clock...at the earliest.
- Time to catch a head cold?
- And even chest...
Come on, so much the better! If the thing seemed picturesque to my professional curiosity, I must say that the voters around me showed some impatience. One of them left.
- I won't vote, it's too long! he grumbled.
Some patients were rewarded: they were already registered, they were told that they were still registered. They just had to be happy! But the unregistered voter, or the one who wanted to obtain a change of address, experienced more difficulty:

- Show me your birth certificate.
- But you see clearly that I was born:...
- It's not sufficient !
And, bound by regulations, undoubtedly useful, but which could be more flexible, civil servants demand documents which are not always strictly useful. It should be added that the town hall officials are extremely helpful and that it is really not their fault if, in these last days of electoral registration, they are overwhelmed by the work.
Not enough officials to receive registrations? Excessive complications, unnecessary paperwork? I do not know ! Still, I left the town hall of my district after more than an hour of waiting, telling myself that if time is money, I had already paid dearly for my notion of civic duty.
Finally, happy to have my registration receipt, I cast a satisfied look at it. Surprised, I read: “The issuance of this receipt does not necessarily imply registration, which remains subject to the decision of the municipal commission.”
And this is how, sovereign voter, I wonder if, despite my obstinacy in voting, I will not be obliged to abstain...

JACQUES CHARTRONS.