Inmates' right to vote: what are the new modalities?

Prisoners, who have not been sentenced to a sentence depriving them of their civil rights, can exercise their right to vote by 3 means:

• by going to their polling station, as part of a one-day temporary absence (this permission cannot be granted to a person sentenced to a prison term of more than 5 years, until he has completed half of it);
• by using the proxy voting ;
• and in the presidential election, the European elections and referendums, by voting by post. To use this means of voting, the detainee must apply to be registered on the electoral list of the commune capital of the department where the prison is located. Detainees can then cast their votes by voting before polling day, by mail, in the prison.

A law of 18 July 2025 reformed the voting procedures for incarcerated persons. The new rules apply as of the municipal elections of march 15 and 22, 2026. As of this election, detainees can no longer vote by mail at the local elections (municipal, departmental, regional) and during the parliamentary elections. During these electoral renewals, they can therefore vote only as part of a temporary absence or by using the proxy voting procedure.

An evolution relating to the registration on the electoral list of a commune

The Act of 18 July 2025 also provides that, with regard to voting by proxy or at a polling station, a detainee may, from March 2026, be registered in a commune where one of his descendants (children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren) was born, is registered or has been entered on the electoral list.

In order to vote by proxy or at a polling station, a prisoner must in principle be registered in the commune of his home, or of his last residence, provided that he has lived there for at least 6 months.

By way of derogation, she could already be entered on the electoral list of certain municipalities, in particular that of her birth or the municipality where her husband, partner of Civil partnerships or cohabiting partner is entered.