Madrid (EFE).- The draws to designate the three people who will form the 60,500 polling stations that will be in Spain on July 23 come to an end. You will know in a few days, if you don’t already know, if you have been one of the chosen ones.
Along with the notification they send you if your name has appeared on the raffle hype, you will see a guide with information about the tables, from the constitution process to their functions. All of this is found in the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime, the LOREG, which is the regulation to which all electoral processes held in Spain must comply.
Next, all your steps.
The raffles
A table is made up of a presidency and two vowels. Its members are appointed by public lottery.
These are made in the town halls. They began on the 24th and will end on June 28.
Approximately 530,000 people are called to constitute the 60,500 tables on election day, according to data from the 2019 general elections and the regional and municipal elections on May 28.
To whom it touches, the notifications will arrive during the following three days, and together with them, an instruction manual on the functions that must be carried out on the day of the elections.
Requirements
If you are over 70 years old, you will not be included in the raffle pots. And if you are over 65 and under 70 and it is your turn to go to a table, you can resign as long as you do so within seven days.
Once appointed, training must be accredited. The president or the president of the table must have a Bachelor’s degree or second degree FP, or a school graduate or equivalent.
Can it be appealed?
Yes. There are several situations that exempt you from the obligation to be at a table. They must be duly justified and argued during the seven days following the notification.
The resolution will take place before five days have passed from the presentation of the allegation.
The Zone Electoral Board will be the body that communicates the resolution and the one that will contact the first substitute in case it decides in favor of the appellant.
The avenues are not exhausted here if the Board decides against the appeal. It may be that the citizen designated to form a table later encounters a situation that prevents him from attending, of which he must report at least 72 hours before the election day with the pertinent justifications.
but what excuses are there
The Central Electoral Board, in a 2011 instruction, listed the personal, family and professional situations that, duly justified, “free” the designated person from going to the table.
As the elections are on July 23, a day on which many citizens will be on vacation, the JEC added two more exonerating circumstances. It did so following a claim from the FACUA consumer association.
Those circumstances are having the vacation contracted before May 30 and that election day coincides with the departure or return trip included in said contract.
To learn more about the excuses allowed, click here.
Are there considerations for being at a polling station?
In the ministerial order of the regional and municipal elections, as well as in the one issued on the occasion of the 2019 general elections, a diet of 70 euros was set.
In addition, the people who form a table will have the due protection of Social Security, and if these people work for someone else or are civil servants, they will have the right to a five-hour workday reduction during the following day.
table formation
The procedure is described in the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG) from article 80.
At 8:00 a.m. on the day of the elections, the president and the members, as well as the alternates, will meet to take office. If the president is not there, the first substitute will replace him. And if the first substitute is not there, the second… The list runs until there are three designated members.
In the event that there are not three members, the table will not be formed. Those present will have to report the incident to the authority present at the polling station and will send a certified mail to the Zone Electoral Board.
In this situation, the Board has full power to choose as a member of the table who, for example, has gone to vote at that moment.
This does not exempt from informing the Public Prosecutor of what happened, since not being at the polling station is a crime defined in the Penal Code, punishable by imprisonment even, with between three months and one year in prison.
Procedure
Essential for the table to start working: that there be a ballot box, voting booth and enough ballot papers. There will be two types this July 23: the white ones for Congress and the salmon-colored ones for the Senate.
As indicated by the LOREG, at 8:30 a.m. the table must be constituted and at 9:00 a.m. the voting will begin. The president, solemnly, will announce it out loud like this: “The voting begins.” The law says so.
During the day, only one member can be absent; at no time can there be less than two at the table.
The voting, in fact, does not stop until the end of the day. Only a cause of force majeure, duly accredited, can interrupt it. Or missing ballots.
The suspension, for whatever reason, cannot last more than an hour. However, the cut time will be compensated at the end of the day, so that table will end later.
End of the day that will be at 8:00 p.m. both on the Peninsula and in the Canary Islands. In the same way that the president or president announces the beginning aloud, he will have to announce the closing.
After that, the president or president will put the vote-by-mail envelopes in the polls and the members will write down the names of the voters who have enrolled in this way.
And the turn of the scrutiny will come.
The power of a president
Electoral law gives considerable authority to the person holding the presidency of a polling station.
Thus, no one can detain the president (nor the members and auditors) during the time they are performing their duties, unless they commit “in flagrante delicto”.
But, regarding the president, he has “exclusive authority” to preserve order in the polling place, ensure the freedom of voters and “maintain the observance of the law.”
In addition, it must ensure that the entrance to the premises is free and accessible and can order the security forces to expel those who break the law.