On 20 and 27 November, the French centre-right organised their primary in view of the forthcoming Presidential election in May 2017. This is the first time they’ve organised a primary. The left had their first one in 2012.
In order to vote, one had to sign a charter summarising the values of the party and pay two euros. Over 8 million voters showed up during the two rounds of voting. This is quite a success considering that 37 million people voted in the second round of the last elections.
But how did they pay? By card? By mobile? Through a custom-built app? By cheque?
No. They paid in cashMoney in physical form such as banknotes and coins. More. They were even invited to provide the correct changeThis is the action by which certain banknotes and/or coins are exchanged for the same amount in banknotes/coins of a different face value, or unit value. See Exchange. More. Assuming they paid with a €2 coinA coin is a small, flat, round piece of metal alloy (or combination of metals) used primarily as legal tender. Issued by government, they are standardised in weight and composition and are produced at ‘mints’. More, that amounts 8 million coins for the two rounds of the election. That represents 80 tons of coins, collected in over 40,000 security bags. But it represents less than 0.2% of 5.7 billion €2 coins in circulation.
According to the French press, the French mailing company, La Poste, which was mandated to process the coins, charged a fee of €750,000. That may seem like a hefty price but consider that there were 10,000 polling stations throughout the country and that La Poste mobilised 2,200 branches and ran a hotline manned by 12 people. The commission represents 4.69% of the total value.
If voters had used Paypal for instance, they would have paid a commission of 3.4% + €0.25 per transaction. For a €2 transaction, that represents 31.8 cents per transaction or a total of €2.544 million.