11

Are there constraints on the number of countries in which you can place a vote in the European Election?

Can a British citizen living in France vote in both France and Britain in the European Elections?

52d6c6af
  • 10,391
  • 2
  • 32
  • 75

2 Answers2

18

You may only vote once.

If you live in your home country, you can only vote for the EU candidates standing for election in your own country.

If you are registered and live in another EU country, you can:

  • vote for candidates standing in your home country or
  • participate in the election of your host country and vote for candidates standing in that country.
Mark Amery
  • 199
  • 1
  • 9
52d6c6af
  • 10,391
  • 2
  • 32
  • 75
  • 5
    And it looks like there may be serious problems for UK expats in today's election. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48351281 – Jontia May 23 '19 at 15:12
  • 5
    And European citizens trying to vote in the UK. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/may/23/eu-citizens-denied-vote-european-election-polling-booths-admin-errors – Jontia May 23 '19 at 15:13
  • @Jontia Those two news pieces taken together look like pretty obvious voting fraud: they disenfranchise 2 groups most likely to vote pro-EU. – M i ech May 24 '19 at 11:46
  • 1
    @Miech "Never ascribe to malice that which can be ascribed to incompetence". My council recommends ex-pats register for a proxy vote rather than a postal vote for precisely the reason that postal votes may not get back in time. (Luckily I took that advice.) – Martin Bonner supports Monica May 24 '19 at 11:49
  • The fact that EU citizens didn't get their forms in time to certify they weren't voting elsewhere is probably down to councils not believing until very late that elections were going to happen. – Martin Bonner supports Monica May 24 '19 at 11:59
  • There were a number of factors: the late notice (like you suggest) was one. But that could have been offset by the higher profile nature of the elections given Brexit. One factor that seemed relevant to many of the reported cases was people being unaware ahead of time that they needed to fill in a second form (EC1) to declare they would vote in the UK and not their home state. Of course, there will have been some clerical errors too. – 52d6c6af May 24 '19 at 12:17
  • @Miech, I have to go with Martin to be honest. Bog standard incompetence and failure to plan for easy to anticipate events are more likely than intentional disenfranchisement. With the equally common, responsibility has been dropped somewhere between these two desks, between local and central government. – Jontia May 24 '19 at 12:38
  • Problem with "never ascribe..." is that it allows malice to hide in plain sight. It's exceedingly easy to use incompetence as front for maintaining plausible deniability. Since there are multiple cases, spread out geographically, I claim malice at some level. – M i ech May 24 '19 at 12:51
  • What’s the motivation though? The established power structure in the UK is europhile through and through. Why would they intentionally disadvantage the most europhile cohort of voters? – 52d6c6af May 24 '19 at 13:23
  • @Ben Article states that some voting councils sent postal forms through different service, likewise it appears some councils removed EU citizen's right to vote. To me it looks as lower level initiative, inspired and organised by someone somewhere in power structure or somehow by third party. Someone with anti-EU motivation. – M i ech May 28 '19 at 07:18
2

Aside from the technical (and correct) answer by Ben, there was a highly prominent case following the previous EU elections in 2014. Journalist Giovanni di Lorenzo who holds both Italian and German citizenship stated in a post-election talkshow hosted by Günther Jauch in Germany’s national television that he had voted twice in that election: once in the Italian consulate and once in his home town of Hamburg. There was some live confusion in the studio but at the end of the show it was confirmed that his actions had been illegal.

He was later the subject of investigations by the Public Prosecutor’s office but ultimately charges were dropped (source in German).

Jan
  • 13,152
  • 4
  • 43
  • 68