On May 28, 2023, the Spanish are called to the polls to vote in the next municipal and regional elections. There is little more than a month left for the appointment and many are already wondering if they will have to be part of a polling station or not.
The members of each polling station are decided by public lottery carried out by the municipalities under the supervision of the Zone Electoral Boards. All the people included in the list of voters of the corresponding table who know how to read and write and who are not over 70 years old enter the draw.
The draw to determine the presidents and members of the polling stations, as well as their corresponding substitutes, will take place between April 28 and May 2, 2023.
While citizens who have been selected to be part of a polling station will receive notification within three days.
Persons who have been appointed presidents or members of a polling station have a period of seven days to present allegations from the time they receive the notification.
Voting by mail does not exempt citizens from being called to form part of a polling station, despite the widespread belief that it does. The causes that are regulated are:
Among these: being over 65 years of age, having a disability, being sick or on leave from work, being pregnant for more than six months or having a risky pregnancy or undergoing surgery on the days close to the vote.
Among them: being the mother of a baby under 9 months of age, having a child under 14 years of age when the other parent cannot take care of him, planning a family event of special importance that cannot be postponed or direct and continuous care of minors. 8 years old, people with disabilities or elderly and/or sick relatives.
Among them: the workers who provide their services to the electoral boards, the courts, health personnel, firefighters or the directors and heads of information services that must cover the day.
Citizens selected to be presidents or members of a polling station must take into account that they are mandatory positions, according to the Electoral Law.
This implies that those who have been called and do not show up “will incur a prison sentence of three months to a year or a fine of six to twenty-four months.”
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
