Villarroya (La Rioja), (EFE)
This small municipality in La Rioja Baja stopped the timer for the 2019 general elections in 32 seconds and 25 hundredths.
Those 26 seconds would have been less if one of the voters had not dropped one of the ballots on the table before putting it in the ballot box.
The four Villarroya voters who have not been part of the table have had more pressure than ever to surpass their mark, since the three of the table vote last.
Because, unlike previous elections, as these elections are in summer, Villarroya is “full” of families who have a house in the town and come during the summer period from Logroño, Arnedo and other municipalities in La Rioja where the descendants of the municipality have emigrated.
For this reason, some forty people have gathered around the voting table, including many children, who have waited for the secretary, Clara Martínez, to give the signal for the president of the table to declare the voting open.
Right after, the four began the process, with an anecdote included, since the justice of the peace, Jesús Garrido, who had joked with the ballot papers before the voting began, dropped one on the table and lost a few seconds picking it up.
But even so, the clock has stopped in 26 seconds, a mark that exceeds the previous one for the general elections by six and the record of the municipal and regional elections on May 28 by three.
Just after closing the table, the secretary has contacted the Government Delegation in La Rioja and has received authorization to conclude the elections in the municipality.
And once the voting is over, the party has begun, with all those who now reside in the town, even if they are not on the census, sharing coffee, pastries and preparing a meal of crumbs that will bring everyone together, once again, as in every vote, to put an end to the tradition of this Rioja municipality, considered the fastest in Spain to vote.
“We are filmed”
The youngest voter in Villarroya, Pilar Abad, in her forties, has told EFE that the “key” to what happens in her town in each election call is that “everyone is very aware that things go well and, furthermore, since we have all had to be president of the board or member at some time, we are clear about what to do.”
“We are filmed, we know at what time we have to be, that we have to have the ballots done,” he detailed.
However, it has had an impact, “more than the record, we would like there to be a generational change in the town” because “we do not want to disappear and be absorbed by a larger town hall.”
“This day in Villarroya is cool, it’s beautiful”, the municipal secretary, Clara Martínez, explained to EFE, who stressed that “the best thing is the good atmosphere that exists between them, that each time they try to improve and beat their record, they strive to run a little more and improve”.
He has assumed that “improving what they have done today is complicated because it is not just voting, you have to complete the process of showing your identity card, as in any polling station,” he has detailed.