Behind the scenes of the cantonal elections
The counting center of the Collège de Grand-Vennes opened its doors to us. Since Saturday morning, a whole small world has been swarming there.
Counting of the ballots in the gymnasiums of the college of Grand-Vennes, Saturday.
Odile Meylan
This Sunday, March 20, 2022, the citizens of Vaud are called upon to elect their Grand Council and their Council of State. Saturday at dawn, already, the first bulletins of the district of Lausanne revealed their results in the gymnasiums of the College of Grand-Vennes. Nearly 200 people took turns all day for the counting stage.
“This is the first time that the counting begins on Saturday, thanks to the entry into force of the new law on the exercise of political rights, rejoices the deputy municipal secretary Patrizia Darbellay. Before, we started on Sunday at midnight. To do this, a derogation was filed with the canton and certain measures had to be put in place, such as a confidentiality agreement requested from the teams involved.
Around 200 people are taking part in the operation.
Odile Meylan
In the two gymnasiums, a happy anthill is active. Generations and genres merge merrily. It should be noted that in addition to the Lausanne bulletins, the center collects those from the other municipalities in the district (Cheseaux, Épalinges, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont, Romanel-sur-Lausanne). With the hope that participation will experience a final jump with the voters who came to slip their ballot into the ballot box at the last minute: “We recorded Friday evening a very low rate 22.2% for 15,000 ballots”, figure Patrizia Darbellay.
Dating and civic duty
It is the ushers who are responsible for transporting the ballot boxes, before a five-step process: 1° the day begins with the opening of the envelopes and the scanning of the ballots; 2° follows the opening of the ballots by machines operated by the bailiffs; 3° the ballots then arrive at the tables of the scrutineers, who count them; (4) they move on to the control stage where a team rechecks everything; 5° Sunday, the results will be entered. The entry room, empty for the time being, is ready to accommodate the 160 people who will come tomorrow to carry out the last counting of the neighborhood offices and the digital entry of the ballot papers.
The input room, which will be put to use this Sunday.
Odile Meylan
At the entrance, the municipal secretariat team takes care of the organization and the civic register. A little further, the table of the electoral office settles all the specific cases at the level of the ballot papers. “These are ballots where there is doubt regarding the intention of the vote,” explains Karine Roch, municipal councilor and members of the electoral office. Table presidents, accustomed to the exercise, supervise the scrutineers.
Odile Meylan
This is the role that Luc Perraux has taken on for five years. “I’m from Lausanne, so it’s a nice civic gesture to
to be able to contribute to the elections”, he notes. He sets the pace and instructions, and checks on progress. “It’s always an interesting collective adventure,” says his colleague Mathieu Gasparini, who works at the municipal secretariat. For six years, he has been supporting and advising table presidents if they have technical questions related to the validity of ballots.
Better understand politics
Around the 9 counting tables, more and more motivated scrutineers are busy extracting the two types of ballots before carefully classifying them. These volunteers paid regarding 30 fr. hour are city employees or externs who gladly return every year.
“The fact of scrutinizing when I arrived in Lausanne motivated me to vote and to better understand the political life of the city. It’s a good way to take an interest in the exercise of civil rights. And also the opportunity to see people once more”, says Yanick Mariot, employee of the City of Lausanne and scrutineer for more than ten years.
Odile Meylan
You found an error?Please let us know.
