This June 29 ends the deadline for requesting a vote by mail for Temporarily Absent Resident Voters (ERTA). Those voters who live in Spain but will be out of the country during the general elections on July 23 have until Thursday to request suffrage by post.
Both the registration in the ERTA and the request for the certificate to vote must be carried out in person at the consulates or embassies. Both procedures can be done in the same appointment. Registering with ERTA does not imply unsubscribing from the Spanish census. In addition, it is valid for one year, so those who registered for the regional and municipal elections in May do not have to repeat it for the general elections in July.
The voter has to indicate their provisional postal address abroad and that is where the Electoral Census Office will send the documentation to vote by mail before July 11. It must be taken into account that this is the date of shipment, so the time it takes to arrive must be added. In addition to the ballots and voting envelopes, the voter receives the certificate of registration in the census and an envelope addressed to the corresponding polling station. Also a form to request that the shipping costs of the postal vote be returned to you.
The voting envelopes, together with the certificate and the expense form, are sent directly to the corresponding polling station in Spain, by certified mail, with July 18 as the deadline. In order for the votes to be considered valid, it is essential that a postmark or other official inscription from a post office of the corresponding state certifying that it has been sent within the deadline clearly appears on the envelope.
The JEC informed on June 9 of the extension of this deadline for the request for the certificate for those registered in the ERTA until June 29, since in principle it was scheduled until the 24th. It is usual in electoral processes that the JEC extend this period, which in principle ends on the twenty-fifth day from the call for elections, according to the law.
The request to extend the term was made on this occasion by the PP. The Board agreed and notified the provincial electoral boards and the directorates-general of Internal Policy, Spaniards Abroad and Consular Affairs of this new maximum date.
