Opinion of French Presidential campaign rules

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1. (Candidacy): While way too many idiots end up running, restricting candidacies is not very democratic. People who want to run for President should either get endorsements from 1% of registered voters or pay a fairly large deposit (and get their deposit back if they break 5% or something).

2. (Campaign finance): I have no issue, and it's way better than how it was in the 70s or 80s.

3. (Advertisement): The rules are obviously anal, but French rules are always anal. The official campaign ads are often horrible and airing them on TV is just so 1970s, but equal airtime is not a bad idea though I could do without Cheminade sprouting off his insanities about aliens.

4. (Campaign end): Sunday elections are the way to go, but the electoral silence period is pretty stupid these days with the interwebs and stuff. But isn't there any GOTV efforts allowed?

5. (Results): It seems fairly decent, if only because suspense at 19:59 is thrilling. I hate the idiots who want to spoil my thrill, and I will try my best tomorrow to shield myself off from anybody who is going to be leaking the exit polls.


What is, however, insanely archaic is having a ballot paper for each candidate instead of just one ballot like in every other civilized country. It's a total waste of paper to begin with, considering 90% of the ballots will end up in the trash.