This electoral call has generated many doubts about who will be obliged to appear at the polling station and there is already a concrete answer. The Central Electoral Board has cleared up doubts about voting by mail and the presence at the polling stations.
What about voting by mail?
The Central Electoral Board has decided ex officio, that is, without being asked by any party, to require the DNI when casting the vote by mail. That is, when we go to the post office to deposit our envelope with our vote, we will have to identify ourselves. And if we cannot go, we must give a written authorization and a photo of the DNI to whoever comes in our place.
To vote by mail you have to be clear about some dates. Until July 13 we can request to vote by mail. This request can be made in person or online. Once we have requested it, between July 3 and 16 it will arrive at the address that we have indicated all the documentation. In other words, if we are going to be on vacation, we can request that the vote be sent by mail to the beach house. Then we have until Thursday, July 19 to deliver the envelope with the vote at the post office, this time it is mandatory to present the ID.
Legal reasons for not being at the polling station
Another novelty consists of expanding the excuses or legal reasons for not being at a polling station on July 23. The novelty is that people who have contracted a trip before May 30 and it is detrimental to lose that trip can be exonerated, they will be able to avoid being at a polling station that day.
To clarify more doubts in “Espejo Público” we spoke with Julio Martínez Zahonero, judge of the Electoral Board of the Zone in Gijón, he clarifies that “what the Central Electoral Board does is establish an assumption and that later it will be the boards that will assess the contract of a trip prior to the knowledge of the electoral date but the most important thing is that the main criterion is that the electoral boards guarantee that the tables are properly constituted. So it is an interpretative issue. In the end it is a decision that the Board has to adopt Electoral area. If someone is summoned to the table, they must present their case and these cases will be exonerated with greater flexibility. “Travels that are justified by law can be exonerated but this is not automatic.”
The management of voting by mail is another issue that also worries those who are going to be outside of Spain from the beginning of July. One solution is to go to deliver the vote to the consulate of the city where we are in the event that it has a consulate. The option in these situations is to authorize another person to take our vote to the post office.
Consequences on tourism
The tourism sector asks the central electoral board to be clear because there are many people who have hired their vacations for a long time. Carlos Garrido, president of the Spanish Confederation of Travel Agencies, insists that it is important that these tourists can be exempted from not appearing at the polling station. At the moment, no cancellations are being registered because they have not yet been notified who should be at the polling station, but the travel agencies are already offering special insurance that covers this situation.
