Today’s elections are the first in Catalonia and in all of Spain that have technology in all polling stations. The participation of a specific school will be known live as well as the results once the scrutiny is underway. That is the main novelty in the Parliamentary elections, as explained yesterday by the vice president of the Government and counselor of the Presidency, Laura Vilagrà, whose department has the powers related to the electoral processes.
In total, 4,800 tablets have been distributed and training sessions and drills have been carried out so that the technological advance involved in including this element does not create incidents.
Vilagrà, who appeared yesterday alongside the spokesperson for the Catalan Executive, Patrícia Plaja, explained that with this novelty there will be “transparency” and also highlighted that “the transmission of data will be streamlined.”
Likewise, he assured that they will contribute to solving problems. “With these tablets it will be possible to take photographs of all the minutes and with artificial intelligence it will be possible to check if any errors have been made,” Vilagrà noted in this regard.
“The Government is taking a qualitative leap to provide all the information with transparency and at the moment,” added Plaja, who highlighted the fact that everyone, through the election application and the website You will be able to consult the scrutiny by schools.
It is expected that between eight and nine in the morning 8,940 polling stations will be set up: 6,491 in Barcelona; 868 in Girona; 547 in Lleida and 1,034 in Tarragona. 80,460 people have been summoned for this task, 26,820 regulars and 53,640 substitutes. Likewise, more than 4,000 representatives of the administration will ensure the proper functioning of the day in relation to data transmission and a team of 500 people will be working at the Center for Telecommunications and Information Technologies (CTTI).
The device is completed by 4,300 Mossos d’Esquadra agents and 3,000 local police officers from different municipalities, according to Plaja. In this way, around 100,000 people will be involved in the electoral event.
In the elections, 1.95% of the census and 8.23% of voters residing abroad have already participated by mail, in advance. In total, 5,754,931 people are called to participate, according to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE), 130,864 more than in the Parliamentary elections of February 2021. Of the total voters, 5,460,337 reside in Catalonia while 294,594 They are residents abroad and are registered in the Electoral Census of Absent Residents (CERA). Those who have already voted according to the first data are 24,233 people, “a somewhat higher percentage than in previous times because they did not have the requested vote,” stated Vilagrà. Regarding voting by mail, 106,031 (1.95%) applications have been accepted, according to provisional data from the INE.
At the 12-M meeting, 243,003 people who have reached the age of majority after the elections of February 14, 2021, which were held in the middle of the covid pandemic with extraordinary measures and voting slots, will vote for the first time. A scenario that is now behind us.
