Deliberation of the municipal ballot in Ramatuelle: Paul Magès elected in the lead (636 votes)

In this document

This handwritten sheet is a deliberation recording the results of a municipal ballot. It indicates the number of votes cast: 1143, and specifies that 90 electors voted by proxy p. 2.

A nominative table follows, detailing the votes obtained by each candidate. Paul Magès came in the lead with 636 votes p. 2, followed by Fernand Vie (631), Albert Raphael (630), Joseph Brun (628) and Jean Pierre Olivier (627).

Breakdown of votes (excerpt of the top-ranked)

The complete list contains a total of about thirty names, with scores going down to 506 votes for Patrice de Colmont p. 2. No precise date, no mention of the municipality or the type of election appears on this page.

Context

The file to which this document belongs (WEB 102) situates this event in Ramatuelle, a commune in the Var, where Paul Magès — a Citroën engineer who remains famous for the invention of the hydropneumatic suspension — retired after his retirement from Citroën in September 1974 (Photographs of Paul Magès' retirement (1974)), before engaging in municipal life: municipal councillor from 1977, then elected in the lead of the 1983 ballot and appointed 2nd deputy mayor (Ramatuelle Municipal Council (1983): Paul Magès, 2nd Deputy Mayor).

The French municipal elections of 1983 were held in March of that year; the voting system at the time, for communes of this size, was based on a list vote with the possibility of splitting the ticket, which explains the presence of a large number of candidates and the narrow gap in the scores obtained.

Archivist's perspective

This document has the value of an official electoral record: it attests, with figures to support it, to the election of Paul Magès as municipal councillor, leading all candidates with 636 votes p. 2.

It constitutes the most factual and "raw" trace of Magès' entry into local politics, after his first term as municipal councillor in 1977, and before his appointment as deputy mayor mentioned in the file title. This result finds its direct extension in the List of members of the Ramatuelle municipal council since March 6, 1983, which officially installs the new council, and then in the Decree of the Mayor of Ramatuelle delegating functions to Paul Magès, 2nd deputy, which formalises his role as deputy a few months later.

The sobriety of the document — a simple table of figures — contrasts with the symbolic significance it holds in Magès' career: that of a renowned engineer choosing, at the end of his career, to serve his adopted commune, where he would be nicknamed "the Professor" (Portrait of Paul Magès in Ramatuelle, "the Professor" and "saviour of De Gaulle").