Voting in an election from abroad has always been a headache. To try to amend it, the Official State Gazette of October 10, 2022 published the Law that reforms the Organic Law of the Electoral Regime, which regulates the exercise of the vote by Spaniards who live outside of Spain. We tell you how to vote from abroad for the 28M elections.
Millions of citizens are called to the polls for May 28, 2023. Regional elections are being held in Aragon, Asturias, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, the Valencian Community, Extremadura, the Balearic Islands, La Rioja, Madrid, Murcia, Navarra, as well as in the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla. Likewise, that same day municipal elections are also held throughout Spain.
People of Spanish nationality who are registered as residents in a consular demarcation and who are registered for electoral purposes (CERA vote) can participate in the regional elections. However, they cannot vote in municipal elections.
Then there are the Spaniards who are temporarily abroad, who can vote both in the regional elections, as long as they are registered for electoral purposes in one of the communities (ERTA vote), and in the municipal elections (regardless of the municipality in who are registered).
To begin with, Spaniards residing abroad who want to participate in the 28M democracy party must be registered in the Consular Registration Register and in the census of absent resident voters (CERA), closed on February 1, 2023.
The Provincial Delegations of the Electoral Census Office will send the electoral documentation to the registration address of each voter between April 22 and 28; To this period must be added the time it takes for the documentation to arrive at the address abroad. As indicated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation:
In the first shipment, voters will receive:
Second mailing between May 3 and 7 with the ballots. In the event of any challenge to the candidacies, this deadline could be delayed until May 13. Voters will also be able to download the ballots from the moment the candidacies are announced and until May 25 at this link from the National Institute of Statistics.
Ways to vote and deadlines:
1. By certified mail addressed to the consulate or embassy. This is the content to send: envelope addressed to the Provincial Electoral Board with the voting envelope with the ballot; certificate of registration in the census; photocopy of passport or DNI (or certification of nationality or registration in the Consular Registration Registry); the other certificate of registration in the census. You can also include the completed form for the return of shipping costs in those countries where post office boxes have not been opened. Until May 23.
2. Deposit your vote in person at the embassy, ??consulate or authorized centers, between May 20 and 25. The second certificate of registration in the census must be delivered and the envelope addressed to the Provincial Electoral Board must be deposited.
In the case of Spaniards who habitually reside abroad (registered in the CERA) and who are temporarily or on vacation in Spain during the call for the 28M electoral process, they can request to vote by mail from April 4 to The 18th of May. They must complete an application at the Post Office and address it to the corresponding Provincial Delegation of the Electoral Census Office.
Voters who are temporarily abroad during the electoral process, and who wish to vote, must request it in advance. The application form can be downloaded at this link from the Ministry of the Interior or requested at consulates and embassies.
The completed application must be delivered in person to the consulate or embassy before April 29. The voter must be registered in the Matricula Consular Registry as non-residents, a procedure that can be carried out at the time of submitting the application.
Subsequently, the Electoral Census Office will send the documentation to vote before May 16, a period to which the time it takes for the documentation to arrive at the address must be added. The documentation to vote consists of:
To vote in the municipal elections, you must write on the ballot the name of the party you wish to vote for and put the ballot in the voting envelope. For the autonomous ones, the ballot of the chosen candidacy must be inserted in the envelope.
The next step is to insert the following content into the envelope addressed to the polling station:
The deadline to send this envelope by certified mail ends on May 24.
In the Official State Gazette of October 10, 2022, the Law that reforms the Organic Law of the Electoral Regime that regulates the exercise of the vote by Spaniards living abroad was published. Among the novelties is the suppression of the requested vote, a requirement by which Spaniards residing abroad had to request the vote.
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