Election Day

In the first of two rounds, France voted for a new President today. It might be the presiding president, Sarkozy, or it might be the new man, the bookie's favourite, Hollande.
Not being allowed to vote, I wandered up to have a look and bumped into some neighbours at about 5 o'clock. "Only 75% of the village has voted so far," they said, "and there's only an hour left.". Good grief, I thought, that's extraordinary. Those kind of voting percentages would be unthinkable in Britain.
Tonight we hear that here in the Herault, the voting percentage was 80%. Isn't that brilliant?
Outside the mairie there was a large poster of each candidate topped by their corresponding number on the voting form. One very small slogan, one very big face and a large number. Keep it simple. What a good idea.