Don't Shut Me Up!
Spanish elections have gone from affairs in which everyone and their (dead) neighbor participated, to something very selective, in which to participate you have to arm yourself with patience, documents, and luck if you live abroad.
If you are a Spanish citizen, and live in Spain, you are automatically registered to vote as soon as you turn eighteen. According to your residence, you are sent a card in the mail informing you of where you have to go to cast your vote on the Sunday chosen for elections. Straightforward and hassle-free.
But if you are Spanish and have had to leave the country to find a decent job and living conditions, things get complicated. Once upon a time they weren't. I remember when I turned eighteen I automatically got the ballot in the mail for general elections. All I had to do was choose which party I wanted to vote for, and send the ballot back by mail. Generally, those who live overseas register at the nearest Spanish consulate so they can renew any national ID card or passport without any problem. What many fail to do, however, is notify the consulate of the death of a Spanish citizen, unless that citizen is to be flown back for burial. Most aren't. Until the electoral law for overseas voters was changed in 2011, ballots went out to all those still registered at Spanish consulates, including those who had died and whose deaths weren't reported. So the ballots would arrive at a house, addressed to a person who no longer breathed. The family would do one of several things. It would inform of the death, or throw out the ballot, or use the ballot and vote according to what the deceased believed in, or use the ballot to vote according to what they believed in, or give it to someone else interested in making their voice doubly felt, or sell it clandestinely. Sometimes a circumscription would change parties based only on the overseas vote, because so many votes were coming in from entire cemeteries. So things were changed.
For the worse in some cases. Now, you do not automatically get the ballot in the mail. You have to ask for it, just like you have to ask for a ballot if you are an American living overseas. But, if for most American states you simply register to vote in January and then get all the ballots for all the elections in that calendar year, that's not what you do if you're Spanish. To begin with, you have to ask for the ballot for each election. That means, if you want to vote in autonomous elections and general elections that fall in the same year, you have to ask for ballots for each of those elections. First, though, there's the inscription. There are two types of inscriptions: those who live permanently abroad and those who are there temporarily. For this year's general elections on the 20th of December, if you live abroad permanently, you are counted as inscribed if that was the case on the 1st of August of this year. If you have registered at a consulate after that date, to vote in December you have to present a claim to be inscribed between the sixth and the ninth day after elections have been convoked. Which this year means between the 2nd and 9th of November because elections were convoked on October 27th. Who knows about this? Practically nobody because you have to specifically ask at the consulate. And those who are temporarily abroad have another, different set of dates and deadlines. Trying to decide which group you belong in and meeting deadlines can be mind boggling!
Once you are inscribed you must ask for the ballot to be mailed to you. You have to ask the Provincial Electoral Delegation of where you last lived in Spain, sending them a photocopy of your identity card, or your passport or consular certificate of nationality, and a copy of your inscription in your nearest consulate. That has to be done between the 28th of October and the 21st of November for this year's general elections. Then, when you receive the ballot, you have to mail it back before the 15th of December or put it in the ballot box at the consulate (those that have it) between the 16th and 18th of December, including in the envelope copies of your documentation accrediting that you are a citizen and eligible to vote. If you live permanently outside the country and decide to come home for the holidays, you may be in trouble if you want to vote. Or if the mail service is late. Because ballots are mailed from Spain as of the 30th of November. Just when the Christmas rush begins.
If you come home for Christmas, where you can vote depends on when you come home. If you come home after the fifteenth, by mail from your residence abroad. If you come home before then, things might get crossed in the mail. If you live outside and want to vote here, you have to ask for your vote by mail like any other citizen living in Spain. But it has to be done before the 10th of December. So, some Spanish citizens who live abroad are finding it impossible to know if they'll be able to vote or not, thanks to trips they are planning, and dates which are too adjusted in time. Especially at Christmas.
That's another problem. Mail volume at this time of year is heinous enough. Mail volume before elections is just about as heinous. Mix the two, add in cutbacks in personnel and offices, and you have thousands of disenfranchised voters, many of whom want to vote and show their discontent. There are cases of people who have not yet received their ballots. And distance seems to have nothing to do with that. People from Miami and from Brussels have complained that as of the 10th of this month they still hadn't received anything. When they finally receive the ballots, it may be too late to do anything. Others have complained that they don't receive all the ballots, that the ballots of some of the parties participating in the election are not included. There is an association, Marea Granate, that matches people abroad who want to vote but find themselves excluded, with people here who always abstain for different reasons, but will cast a vote for one of those abroad who can't.
It's funny how we tend to take for granted a civil right such as voting, that we miss as soon as the necessity to make peaceful political changes becomes apparent.
If you are a Spanish citizen, and live in Spain, you are automatically registered to vote as soon as you turn eighteen. According to your residence, you are sent a card in the mail informing you of where you have to go to cast your vote on the Sunday chosen for elections. Straightforward and hassle-free.
But if you are Spanish and have had to leave the country to find a decent job and living conditions, things get complicated. Once upon a time they weren't. I remember when I turned eighteen I automatically got the ballot in the mail for general elections. All I had to do was choose which party I wanted to vote for, and send the ballot back by mail. Generally, those who live overseas register at the nearest Spanish consulate so they can renew any national ID card or passport without any problem. What many fail to do, however, is notify the consulate of the death of a Spanish citizen, unless that citizen is to be flown back for burial. Most aren't. Until the electoral law for overseas voters was changed in 2011, ballots went out to all those still registered at Spanish consulates, including those who had died and whose deaths weren't reported. So the ballots would arrive at a house, addressed to a person who no longer breathed. The family would do one of several things. It would inform of the death, or throw out the ballot, or use the ballot and vote according to what the deceased believed in, or use the ballot to vote according to what they believed in, or give it to someone else interested in making their voice doubly felt, or sell it clandestinely. Sometimes a circumscription would change parties based only on the overseas vote, because so many votes were coming in from entire cemeteries. So things were changed.
For the worse in some cases. Now, you do not automatically get the ballot in the mail. You have to ask for it, just like you have to ask for a ballot if you are an American living overseas. But, if for most American states you simply register to vote in January and then get all the ballots for all the elections in that calendar year, that's not what you do if you're Spanish. To begin with, you have to ask for the ballot for each election. That means, if you want to vote in autonomous elections and general elections that fall in the same year, you have to ask for ballots for each of those elections. First, though, there's the inscription. There are two types of inscriptions: those who live permanently abroad and those who are there temporarily. For this year's general elections on the 20th of December, if you live abroad permanently, you are counted as inscribed if that was the case on the 1st of August of this year. If you have registered at a consulate after that date, to vote in December you have to present a claim to be inscribed between the sixth and the ninth day after elections have been convoked. Which this year means between the 2nd and 9th of November because elections were convoked on October 27th. Who knows about this? Practically nobody because you have to specifically ask at the consulate. And those who are temporarily abroad have another, different set of dates and deadlines. Trying to decide which group you belong in and meeting deadlines can be mind boggling!
Once you are inscribed you must ask for the ballot to be mailed to you. You have to ask the Provincial Electoral Delegation of where you last lived in Spain, sending them a photocopy of your identity card, or your passport or consular certificate of nationality, and a copy of your inscription in your nearest consulate. That has to be done between the 28th of October and the 21st of November for this year's general elections. Then, when you receive the ballot, you have to mail it back before the 15th of December or put it in the ballot box at the consulate (those that have it) between the 16th and 18th of December, including in the envelope copies of your documentation accrediting that you are a citizen and eligible to vote. If you live permanently outside the country and decide to come home for the holidays, you may be in trouble if you want to vote. Or if the mail service is late. Because ballots are mailed from Spain as of the 30th of November. Just when the Christmas rush begins.
If you come home for Christmas, where you can vote depends on when you come home. If you come home after the fifteenth, by mail from your residence abroad. If you come home before then, things might get crossed in the mail. If you live outside and want to vote here, you have to ask for your vote by mail like any other citizen living in Spain. But it has to be done before the 10th of December. So, some Spanish citizens who live abroad are finding it impossible to know if they'll be able to vote or not, thanks to trips they are planning, and dates which are too adjusted in time. Especially at Christmas.
That's another problem. Mail volume at this time of year is heinous enough. Mail volume before elections is just about as heinous. Mix the two, add in cutbacks in personnel and offices, and you have thousands of disenfranchised voters, many of whom want to vote and show their discontent. There are cases of people who have not yet received their ballots. And distance seems to have nothing to do with that. People from Miami and from Brussels have complained that as of the 10th of this month they still hadn't received anything. When they finally receive the ballots, it may be too late to do anything. Others have complained that they don't receive all the ballots, that the ballots of some of the parties participating in the election are not included. There is an association, Marea Granate, that matches people abroad who want to vote but find themselves excluded, with people here who always abstain for different reasons, but will cast a vote for one of those abroad who can't.
It's funny how we tend to take for granted a civil right such as voting, that we miss as soon as the necessity to make peaceful political changes becomes apparent.
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