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The French can no longer be described as systematic voters. Intermittent voting has become the order of the day with the presidential election being the only one that continues to have broad appeal. In the 2012 presidential election, the strong level of turnout broke with the cycle of abstention that had characterized all mid-term elections during Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidency. Nevertheless, compared to the 2007 presidential election, turnout decreased among all sections of the population. This article draws on recent electoral surveys conducted by the Cevipof to examine changes in electoral turnout according to the sociological and political characteristics of the different electorates. Comparing the last three presidential elections (2002, 2007 and 2012), it evaluates the proportions of sociological and political abstention. More broadly, this article reconsiders the principle explanations for turnout models in an attempt to elucidate the diverse motives for voting versus non-voting.