From the NYT: Flanked by four campaign volunteers and a French television reporter, Corinne Narassiguin, a Socialist candidate in France’s coming parliamentary elections, went canvassing in her would-be district one evening in May.
But the doors she was knocking on were in the West Village.
“Bonjour, madame,” Ms. Narassiguin said over a town house’s intercom.
A volunteer leaned in to ask in French, “Would you like to talk for a few minutes, if you have time?”
The woman didn’t — she was putting her children to bed — but she did plan to vote for Ms. Narassiguin. “Merci beaucoup,” Ms. Narassiguin said, campaign postcards with her photograph in hand. As they went down the stoop, a volunteer shouted to the others, “It’s a vote!”
On June 16, for the first time, French nationals living in the United States and Canada will elect a deputy to represent them in the National Assembly of France. There are 11 such new parliamentary seats for citizens living abroad, in Europe and the rest of the globe. The North American constituency counts 156,683 registered voters — less than a quarter of the size of a United States Congressional district. Continue here.
