The Central Electoral Board (JEC) has strengthened the measures to prevent possible electoral fraud in the vote by mail for the general elections of July 23 and in its meeting yesterday it agreed that the DNI – or document analogue – to voters at the time of casting their vote, and not only when they request it, as was done until now.
The electoral law establishes in its article 72 that the Post office official in charge of receiving the request to vote by mail must ask the interested party to show the original ID and check that the signature matches. The option now approved by the JEC to ask for documentation also at the time of handing in the vote does not appear in the electoral law. However, it was already put into operation exceptionally in the May 28 postal voting in Melilla following the scandal of the alleged purchase of thousands of votes in this autonomous city, which is being investigated.
The provision now agreed by the JEC to extend the measure to the elections of 23-J, to provide more legal certainty to the electoral process, was adopted ex officio, without any party requesting it. Instruction 5/2023 details that those interested must present “the DNI, passport, driver’s license, residence card or any other valid document that allows the voter to be identified”. It also specifies that if the voter could not go in person to cast the vote, another person can do so with an authorization signed by the voter, accompanied by a photocopy of their DNI or similar document. The instruction specifies that ballot envelopes collected in Post Office boxes will not be valid.
Along with this measure, the Electoral Board also assessed in its meeting the expansion of excuses and impediments to be part of an electoral board, and agreed to exempt voters who have contracted and paid for a trip before 30 of May, the date on which the general elections were officially called, and whenever the cancellation involves economic damage or serious disruption.
If these circumstances occur, the corresponding Zonal Electoral Board can assess case by case individually and accept it as a valid excuse, “provided that the full integration of the months is ensured and that the date of the contract is documented” and the economic damage or serious disorder they have alleged.
The legal excuses to avoid the obligation to be part of a polling station are duly specified in instruction 6/2011 of the JEC, which does not vary. However, these are not closed cases, and on this occasion what the Electoral Board has done is to incorporate a new pretext, so that, as always, it is the zone boards that make the decision.
The advance of the general elections to July 23 was announced by the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, the day after the elections of May 28, as a result of the personal assumption of the defeat suffered by the PSOE. Many Spaniards then asked themselves what would happen to the trips they had contracted for those days if it was their turn to go to a polling station. They already have the answer.
