How to vote in Spain

Whether it is a general, regional, municipal or European election to be able to exercise the right to vote in Spain, it is necessary to be of legal age and be correctly registered in the Electoral Census. Therefore, it will be necessary to check your data in it, to communicate your changes of address and / or registration in the new municipality of residence. Currently, in Spain you can not only send your vote in physical form, but also by mail or even vote if you are residing abroad. To get rid of doubts and know how you should vote in any of these circumstances, we invite you to read this article where we show you how to vote in Spain in detail.

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First, to be able to vote in Spain, you must be registered in the Electoral Census of a province, autonomous city or island. Once the elections have been called and before they are held, the same Office of the Electoral Census of the Government of Spain sends a census card to all the voters showing their information, as well as the location, the section and the table in the They must deposit their vote. It will also be indicated in it if there have been changes or modifications that the elector in question should know.

In case of doubt, we recommend you to consult our article How to know where I have to vote in Spain, in which we explain to you in addition to what form you can know which is your center and electoral table through Internet.

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On election day, you do not need to carry the census card when you go to vote. You will only have to go to your corresponding polling station and identify yourself to the President of the same by means of your National Identity Document (DNI) or, in substitution, your passport, driving license or residence card (in case of EU citizens) who own it). Take into account that only the originals of these documents will be accepted and that the photocopies will be rejected.

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Once the President of the polling station has identified which figures in the census list, it will indicate that you can already deposit the envelope with your vote in the ballot box and mark that you have already exercised your right to vote. Most political parties send their ballots and official envelopes by mail, but in your center or polling station you will find the ballot papers of all possible political options without problem. If you want to choose your vote privately, you can use the closed cabins with curtains that you will find there.

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Take into account that the polling stations in Spain are open from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. in an uninterrupted manner. In spite of this, in case you can not or can not go physically, you have the option to exercise your vote by mail.

How to vote by mail? Very simple, you should go to any Post Office and request there the form that is needed to vote by mail, complete it and deliver it there personally. By certified mail, you will receive an envelope at your address that will contain a ballot of each of the political formations, the census registration certificate, an envelope with the address of the polling station where you would vote and an information sheet. In the envelope you must enter what is specified in the information sheet and send it by certified mail before the third day prior to the election.

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Spanish citizens who reside abroad and who want to vote in elections can do so without problem, but it will be necessary to carry out the following procedure. They must fill out the application form provided by the Census Bureau and send it before the 15th day prior to the call for elections to the Provincial Delegation of the Electoral Census Office in which they are registered in Spain, together with a photocopy of the DNI or, instead, a photocopy of the passport, the certification of nationality or the certification of registration in the Registry of Consular Registration.

You should know that you can also send this request electronically through the procedure "Application for voting by CERA voters" available at the Electronic Headquarters of the INE (National Institute of Statistics).

• Depending on the country, some of the observations may vary, so we restrict these guidelines to Spain. Even so, it serves as a model for any type of electoral process.
• Little by little, some voting conditions are changing, such as the fact that blind people have autonomy and more facilities to do so.