Searches for “electoral roll” have surged in Britain and Ireland this week, and many of the people typing those words live on the other side of the Channel. If you are a British citizen settled in France, the question behind the search is a sharp one: after Brexit, can you still vote in France, and where else can you vote at all? The short answer is split in two. Since 1 February 2020 you cannot vote in any French election, municipal or European, and the Cour de cassation has now confirmed that exclusion three times over, including twice in cases brought by British residents themselves. But you have not lost every vote: as a British citizen who previously lived in the United Kingdom, you can register as an overseas voter and vote in UK Parliament elections from your French address, by post, by proxy or in person when you are back in Britain. This guide explains both halves in full: why the French electoral roll is closed to you and which court decisions sealed it, how the French registration and challenge machinery works if you are refused or removed, and how to register, renew and protect your British overseas vote, with every decisive rule quoted from the official text.<\/p>\n
The blunt answer is no, and it has been tested to the highest level. Before Brexit, British residents voted in French municipal elections and in European elections in France as citizens of the European Union. That right survived neither the withdrawal agreement nor the litigation that followed. Two British residents challenged their removal from the French rolls all the way to the Cour de cassation, one of them twice over with references to the Court of Justice of the European Union, and both lost. Understanding exactly what was decided matters, because it tells you which doors are closed, which one remains open through French nationality, and why no individual examination of your personal situation can change the outcome.<\/p>\n
French electoral law reserves the general roll to French nationals. Article L2<\/a> of the Code \u00e9lectoral, the Electoral Code, states the rule in one sentence: “Sont \u00e9lecteurs les Fran\u00e7aises et Fran\u00e7ais \u00e2g\u00e9s de dix-huit ans accomplis, jouissant de leurs droits civils et politiques et n’\u00e9tant dans aucun cas d’incapacit\u00e9 pr\u00e9vu par la loi.” In plain English: only French men and women aged eighteen or over, enjoying their civil and political rights and under no legal incapacity, are electors. The only exception ever made for foreign residents concerned citizens of the European Union, and it was fenced off on a separate roll. Article LO227-1<\/a> provides that “Les citoyens de l’Union europ\u00e9enne r\u00e9sidant en France, autres que les citoyens fran\u00e7ais, peuvent participer \u00e0 l’\u00e9lection des conseillers municipaux dans les m\u00eames conditions que les \u00e9lecteurs fran\u00e7ais, sous r\u00e9serve des dispositions de la pr\u00e9sente section.” EU citizens living in France, other than French citizens, may therefore vote in municipal council elections on the same terms as French electors. Article LO227-2<\/a> adds the mechanics: “Pour exercer leur droit de vote, les personnes vis\u00e9es \u00e0 l’article LO 227-1 doivent \u00eatre inscrites, \u00e0 leur demande, sur une liste \u00e9lectorale compl\u00e9mentaire.” To vote, they must apply to join a complementary electoral roll, the liste \u00e9lectorale compl\u00e9mentaire, a second roll kept alongside the main one for EU citizens, one for municipal elections and one for European elections. The official service-public.fr guidance confirms the same architecture in English: only nationals of a European Union Member State other than France may use these complementary rolls, and it cites the governing statute, Law No. 77-729 of 7 July 1977 on the election of representatives to the European Parliament, for European elections.<\/p>\n The moment the United Kingdom ceased to be a Member State, British residents fell outside both provisions. That is precisely what the Cour de cassation held on 1 October 2020 in the first great Brexit voting case, Second Civil Chamber, appeal No. 20-16.901, ECLI:FR:CCASS:2020:C201153, a claim by Mr O., a British resident of Le Dorat in Haute-Vienne who said he had been on the French rolls since 2009 and was removed when the withdrawal agreement took effect. He asked to be re-registered for the postponed second round of the 2020 municipal elections, the mayor refused on 7 May 2020, the control commission confirmed the refusal on 4 June, and he fought the case up with arguments based on retained European citizenship, non-discrimination and proportionality, even seeking a reference to the Court of Justice. The Cour de cassation rejected everything. Its central holding deserves quotation in full: “qu’\u00e0 compter du 1er f\u00e9vrier 2020, date d’entr\u00e9e en vigueur de cet accord, le Royaume-Uni a cess\u00e9 d’\u00eatre un \u00c9tat membre de l’Union et que, par suite, ses ressortissants ne jouissent plus de la citoyennet\u00e9 europ\u00e9enne, \u00e0 laquelle est subordonn\u00e9, aux termes des articles 88-3 de la Constitution du 4 octobre 1958 et L.O. 227-1 du code \u00e9lectoral, le droit de vote et d’\u00e9ligibilit\u00e9 aux \u00e9lections municipales en France.” Since 1 February 2020, the Court says, the United Kingdom is no longer a Member State, its nationals no longer enjoy European citizenship, and European citizenship is the precondition for municipal voting rights under Article 88-3 of the Constitution and Article LO227-1. The Court added that there was no need for a Luxembourg reference: “il n’y a pas lieu de saisir la Cour de justice de l’Union europ\u00e9enne \u00e0 titre pr\u00e9judiciel, en interpr\u00e9tation ou en appr\u00e9ciation de validit\u00e9 de l’accord sur le retrait du Royaume-Uni.” And it disposed of the case with the single line “REJETTE le pourvoi.” Read the full ruling here: Cass. Civ. 2e, 1 October 2020, No. 20-16.901<\/a>.<\/p>\n One limb of that 2020 reasoning gave British readers a crumb of comfort that is worth understanding. Mr O. argued that losing the French municipal vote left him with no vote anywhere, a disproportionate wound. The Court answered that he had kept his British voting rights and therefore could not claim to have been stripped of every electoral right. That sentence is the bridge to Part II of this guide: the British vote survived, and it is the one you must now organise.<\/p>\n The second British case went further and closed the European-elections door too. Mrs U., a British farmer living in a commune in the Gers since 1984, challenged her removal from the complementary roll for European elections. Her case produced two references to Luxembourg, CJEU 9 June 2022, Pr\u00e9fet du Gers I, C-673\/20, and CJEU 18 April 2024, Pr\u00e9fet du Gers II, C-716\/22, and then a final French ruling: Cass. Civ. 2e, 9 October 2025, No. 25-60.142<\/a>, cassation without remand at the prefect’s request. The Cour de cassation recited the Luxembourg answers word for word. On municipal elections: the EU provisions “doivent \u00eatre interpr\u00e9t\u00e9s en ce sens que, depuis le retrait du Royaume-Uni de Grande-Bretagne et d’Irlande du Nord (le Royaume-Uni) de l’Union europ\u00e9enne, le 1er f\u00e9vrier 2020, les ressortissants de cet \u00c9tat qui ont exerc\u00e9 leur droit de r\u00e9sider dans un \u00c9tat membre avant la fin de la p\u00e9riode de transition, ne b\u00e9n\u00e9ficient plus du statut de citoyen de l’Union, ni, plus particuli\u00e8rement, au titre de l’article 20, paragraphe 2, sous b), et de l’article 22 du TFUE, du droit de vote et d’\u00e9ligibilit\u00e9 aux \u00e9lections municipales dans leur \u00c9tat membre de r\u00e9sidence, y compris lorsqu’ils sont \u00e9galement priv\u00e9s, en vertu du droit de l’\u00c9tat dont ils sont ressortissants, du droit de vote aux \u00e9lections organis\u00e9es par ce dernier \u00c9tat (CJUE, arr\u00eat du 9 juin 2022, Pr\u00e9fet du Gers I, C-673\/20).” Even voters who had exercised residence rights before the end of the transition period, and even voters left voteless under British law, keep no municipal vote. On European elections the answer was identical: since 1 February 2020, British residents “ne b\u00e9n\u00e9ficient plus d’un droit de vote et d’\u00e9ligibilit\u00e9 aux \u00e9lections au Parlement europ\u00e9en dans leur \u00c9tat membre de r\u00e9sidence (CJUE, arr\u00eat du 18 avril 2024, Pr\u00e9fet du Gers II, C-716\/22)”. The French Court drew the general conclusion in a sentence every British reader should memorise: “un ressortissant du Royaume-Uni ne peut \u00eatre inscrit en France sur les listes \u00e9lectorales compl\u00e9mentaires en vue de participer aux \u00e9lections municipales et aux \u00e9lections europ\u00e9ennes, sans qu’il y ait lieu de proc\u00e9der \u00e0 l’examen de sa situation individuelle.” No British national may be entered on the complementary rolls for municipal or European elections, with no individual examination of personal circumstances. It quashed the Auch tribunal’s judgment in full, “CASSE ET ANNULE, en toutes ses dispositions, le jugement rendu le 14 mai 2025, entre les parties, par le tribunal judiciaire d’Auch”, declared “DIT n’y avoir lieu \u00e0 renvoi”, and “REJETTE la demande de Mme [U] tendant \u00e0 l’annulation de la d\u00e9cision de rejet de r\u00e9inscription sur la liste \u00e9lectorale de la commune de [Localit\u00e9 5], pour les \u00e9lections europ\u00e9ennes”. The Court also explained why length of residence, farming under the common agricultural policy since 1984, and moral objections to naturalisation change nothing: the loss of Union citizenship “est une cons\u00e9quence automatique de la seule d\u00e9cision prise souverainement par le Royaume-Uni de se retirer de l’Union, en vertu de l’article 50, paragraphe 1, TUE”, and “ni les autorit\u00e9s comp\u00e9tentes des \u00c9tats membres ni les juridictions de ceux-ci ne sauraient \u00eatre tenues de proc\u00e9der \u00e0 un examen individuel des cons\u00e9quences de la perte du statut de citoyen de l’Union pour la personne concern\u00e9e, au regard du principe de proportionnalit\u00e9”. No authority and no court owes you a personal proportionality assessment.<\/p>\n Two practical consequences follow. First, the only route back onto a French roll is French nationality itself: a British reader who becomes French votes as a French citizen on the main roll, with full rights in every election, municipal, parliamentary, presidential and European. Naturalisation, with its residence, language and assimilation conditions, is therefore also an electoral strategy, and our guide to British newcomers’ residence rights from visa to carte de s\u00e9jour<\/a> explains the residence foundation on which any later nationality application is built. Second, dual French-British nationals were never affected: holding French nationality, you register exactly like any French citizen. If you hold both passports and a mayor tells you otherwise, the challenge procedure in the next section is yours to use.<\/p>\n Even though British citizens cannot be entered on the rolls, the challenge machinery matters to you in three situations: you hold French nationality as well and are wrongly refused, you were wrongly removed, or you want to understand the deadlines because a spouse, child or neighbour is affected. French electoral litigation moves fast, with time limits counted in days, and missing one is usually fatal. Here is the chain exactly as the Code lays it down.<\/p>\n Everything starts with the mayor, the maire<\/a> of your commune, or in Paris with the mayor of your arrondissement, since Paris, Lyon and Marseille keep one roll per arrondissement. Registration is on application, and Article L11<\/a> provides that “Sont inscrits sur la liste \u00e9lectorale de la commune, sur leur demande”, then sets the territorial tests: real domicile in the commune or six months’ residence there opens the door, and electors’ children under twenty-six follow them onto the same roll. The mayor checks the file and “Il statue sur cette demande dans un d\u00e9lai de cinq jours \u00e0 compter de son d\u00e9p\u00f4t.” Five days to decide. The same article organises removals, called radiation<\/a>: “Le maire radie les \u00e9lecteurs qui ne remplissent plus aucune des conditions mentionn\u00e9es au premier alin\u00e9a du pr\u00e9sent I \u00e0 l’issue d’une proc\u00e9dure contradictoire.” No one is struck off without first being heard. Every decision is notified within two days and sent to INSEE, the national statistics institute that holds the single national electoral register: “La liste \u00e9lectorale de la commune est extraite d’un r\u00e9pertoire \u00e9lectoral unique et permanent. Ce r\u00e9pertoire est tenu par l’Institut national de la statistique et des \u00e9tudes \u00e9conomiques aux seules fins de gestion du processus \u00e9lectoral.” That is Article L16<\/a>, and it explains why a removal in one commune follows you everywhere: the register is national.<\/p>\n If the mayor refuses or removes you, the first appeal is compulsory and administrative under Article L18<\/a>: “Tout recours contentieux form\u00e9 par l’\u00e9lecteur int\u00e9ress\u00e9 contre une d\u00e9cision prise au titre du pr\u00e9sent article est pr\u00e9c\u00e9d\u00e9 d’un recours administratif pr\u00e9alable, \u00e0 peine d’irrecevabilit\u00e9 du recours contentieux. Ce recours administratif pr\u00e9alable est form\u00e9 dans un d\u00e9lai de cinq jours \u00e0 compter de la notification de la d\u00e9cision pr\u00e9vue au II du pr\u00e9sent article.” Five days from notification to file the prior administrative appeal, the recours administratif pr\u00e9alable, on pain of inadmissibility of everything after. The appeal goes to the control commission, the commission de contr\u00f4le<\/a> of Article L19<\/a>: “Dans chaque commune ou, \u00e0 Paris, Marseille et Lyon, dans chaque arrondissement, une commission de contr\u00f4le statue sur les recours administratifs pr\u00e9alables pr\u00e9vus au III de l’article L. 18.” That commission also polices the roll on its own motion. Up to the twenty-first day before polling day, a majority of its members may overturn the mayor’s decisions, add an omitted voter or remove a wrongly registered one, with a hearing before any removal: “Lorsqu’elle radie un \u00e9lecteur, sa d\u00e9cision est soumise \u00e0 une proc\u00e9dure contradictoire.”<\/p>\n After the commission, the judge takes over, and this is the tribunal judiciaire, the ordinary civil court sitting as election judge. Article L20<\/a> gives two doors. The general door: “Tout \u00e9lecteur inscrit sur la liste \u00e9lectorale de la commune peut demander, aupr\u00e8s du tribunal judiciaire, l’inscription ou la radiation d’un \u00e9lecteur omis ou ind\u00fbment inscrit ou contester la d\u00e9cision de radiation ou d’inscription d’un \u00e9lecteur.” Any registered elector, and the pr\u00e9fet, the State’s representative in the d\u00e9partement, in every case, can ask the court to add, remove or correct an entry. “Le recours est form\u00e9 dans un d\u00e9lai de sept jours \u00e0 compter de la publication de la liste \u00e9lectorale. Le jugement du tribunal judiciaire, qui se prononce en dernier ressort dans un d\u00e9lai de huit jours \u00e0 compter du recours, est notifi\u00e9 dans un d\u00e9lai de deux jours aux parties, au maire et \u00e0 l’Institut national de la statistique et des \u00e9tudes \u00e9conomiques. Un pourvoi en cassation peut \u00eatre form\u00e9 contre ce jugement dans un d\u00e9lai de dix jours \u00e0 compter de sa notification. Le pourvoi n’est pas suspensif.” Seven days to seize the court, eight days for a last-resort judgment, ten days for a cassation appeal that does not suspend. The emergency door stays open until polling day itself: “Toute personne qui pr\u00e9tend avoir \u00e9t\u00e9 omise de la liste \u00e9lectorale de la commune en raison d’une erreur purement mat\u00e9rielle ou avoir \u00e9t\u00e9 radi\u00e9e en m\u00e9connaissance de l’article L. 18 peut saisir le tribunal judiciaire, qui a comp\u00e9tence pour statuer jusqu’au jour du scrutin.” A purely clerical omission or a removal in breach of the hearing requirement can be taken to the judge up to election day.<\/p>\n Three recent rulings show how courts actually use these texts, and each carries a lesson. First, the judge must examine the substance, not rubber-stamp the commission. On 13 March 2026 the Second Civil Chamber quashed a Gonesse proximity-court judgment that had upheld the removal of Mrs B., a Romanian national, from a complementary roll, because the lower court had merely noted she had not supplied an extra proof of address in time. The Cour de cassation recalled the test, “peuvent \u00eatre inscrits sur une liste \u00e9lectorale compl\u00e9mentaire de la commune, sur leur demande, notamment, les citoyens de l’Union europ\u00e9enne r\u00e9sidant en France qui ont leur domicile r\u00e9el dans la commune ou y habitent depuis six mois au moins”, and held: “En se d\u00e9terminant ainsi, sans rechercher si Mme [B] r\u00e9pondait aux conditions prescrites par la loi pour \u00eatre inscrite sur la liste \u00e9lectorale compl\u00e9mentaire de la commune de [Localit\u00e9 1], le tribunal a priv\u00e9 sa d\u00e9cision de base l\u00e9gale.” Failure to check the legal conditions is a lack of legal basis, and the judgment was quashed in full: “CASSE ET ANNULE, en toutes ses dispositions, le jugement rendu le 5 mars 2026”. Read it here: Cass. Civ. 2e, 13 March 2026, No. 26-60.098<\/a>. For EU-citizen readers, and for dual nationals, the message is that a removal letter demanding one more document does not end the story: the judge must verify domicile, residence and capacity. Second, mind who is allowed to appeal. On 10 June 2021 the same Chamber declared inadmissible a cassation appeal filed by a mayor in his official capacity: “le pourvoi en cassation contre le jugement statuant sur l’inscription d’un \u00e9lecteur sur la liste \u00e9lectorale de la commune ou sur sa radiation ne peut \u00eatre form\u00e9 que par les personnes ayant \u00e9t\u00e9 parties \u00e0 l’instance, limitativement \u00e9num\u00e9r\u00e9es, que sont l’\u00e9lecteur int\u00e9ress\u00e9, tout \u00e9lecteur inscrit sur la liste consid\u00e9r\u00e9e, ainsi que, dans tous les cas, le repr\u00e9sentant de l’Etat dans le d\u00e9partement. Il en d\u00e9coule que la commune n’a pas qualit\u00e9 pour former un pourvoi en cassation.” Only the voter concerned, a registered elector of the same roll, or the pr\u00e9fet may go to cassation; the commune as such may not, and the appeal was declared inadmissible: “D\u00c9CLARE IRRECEVABLE le pourvoi.” See Cass. Civ. 2e, 10 June 2021, No. 21-60.115<\/a>. If your mairie threatens to fight your registration up to Paris, know that the mairie itself has no ticket for that journey. Third, late registrations are possible in defined hardship cases. Article L30<\/a> lets certain voters register “entre le sixi\u00e8me vendredi pr\u00e9c\u00e9dant le scrutin et le dixi\u00e8me jour pr\u00e9c\u00e9dant ce scrutin”, between the sixth Friday before polling day and the tenth day before it: transferred civil servants and their families, demobilised soldiers, people who move commune for professional reasons after the deadline, young people who turn eighteen, and newly naturalised French citizens. A British reader who acquires French nationality just before an election should memorise that fourth category.<\/p>\n In practice, start online before you write any letter. The official English-language pages let you check your registration and polling station<\/a>, file an online registration application<\/a> with proof of identity and address, and read the rules for EU citizens voting in France<\/a> and for registering and voting in the same year<\/a>. Keep every notification letter with its date: your five-day administrative appeal runs from notification, and the commission that hears it must answer within thirty days, silence counting as a decision you can then take to the tribunal judiciaire. In the Paris region, the catchment courts are used to these cases, as the Gonesse and Pontoise litigation in Val-d’Oise shows. Act in days, not weeks.<\/p>\n The vote you keep is the British one, and since the old fifteen-year cut-off described in the Gers litigation belongs to the past, the current system is more generous than many long-settled residents realise. GOV.UK states the test without any time limit: British citizens who move or live abroad can register as overseas voters, provided they previously lived in the United Kingdom, with a parallel route for eligible Irish citizens registering in Northern Ireland. Previous UK residence plus British citizenship is the whole gateway; how many decades ago you left does not appear in the test. Registration or past residence, either suffices. What follows is the complete operating manual: the declaration, the renewal cycle, the three ways of casting the ballot, and the traps that remove you from the register.<\/p>\n Registration runs through the ordinary register-to-vote service<\/a> for England, Scotland and Wales, with a paper route through the Electoral Office for Northern Ireland, and full guidance sits on the official voting when living abroad<\/a> pages . Full guidance sits on the official voting when living abroad<\/a> pages. The service asks for a National Insurance number while allowing registration without one, and links your application to where you last lived in the United Kingdom, because everything afterwards, reminders, the polling station, the constituency, hangs off that last address. Give the most precise last address you can, including the postcode, and keep a copy of the declaration and every confirmation: three years later, at renewal, you will need the same facts again, and consistency across cycles is what keeps withdrawals and objections away. Treat any request for further evidence from the registration officer as urgent: the officer decides on the papers before them, and a thin file invites refusal.<\/p>\n The registration you obtain is not permanent. Renewal is required every three years to keep voting in UK elections, with a reminder from the registration office when the date approaches. The renewal runs through a dedicated renewal service<\/a> with a nine-digit access code from the reminder letter or email, or by paper form if you cannot use the online service, and the sanction for letting it lapse is blunt: Failure to renew means removal from the register, after which a fresh overseas application is needed. Two administrative habits therefore protect your vote for life: tell the registration office whenever you change name, address or nationality, and renew on the reminder, not after. Diary the renewal alongside any postal or proxy arrangement so the whole bundle is checked together. For a household in France, put all British adults’ renewals on the same reminder and check them together each autumn.<\/p>\n Know also what this registration does not give. Registration as an overseas voter opens voting in UK Parliament elections. Westminster general elections, yes, plus by-elections for the Commons seat of your last address. Local council elections in England, devolved elections in Scotland and Wales, and Police and Crime Commissioner elections are not included, and referendums each set their own franchise: Referendums each set their own franchise, which may or may not include overseas voters. Do not assume that a future referendum copies the general-election franchise; read its instrument. If you cross the Channel on polling day, your polling station is the one attached to your last United Kingdom address. Otherwise your ballot travels by post or through your proxy.<\/p>\nB. Refused or Removed from the French Roll? How to Challenge the Decision Step by Step<\/h3>\n
II. How to Keep Voting in UK Elections While Living in France<\/h2>\n
A. Registering as an Overseas Voter: the Electoral Commission Test, the Declaration and Renewal<\/h3>\n
B. Postal, Proxy or In-Person Votes: Deadlines, Evidence Requests and Keeping Your Registration Alive<\/h3>\n