The surprise call of the general elections, just hours after having voted at the local and regional polls, caught thousands of Spaniards with the wrong foot. July 23, in the heat of heat, is a completely unusual date for a general election. For this reason, and given the lack of foresight, the Central Electoral Board approved an instruction last month to allow those who already had contracted vacations to avoid going to a polling station.

That clarified his situation.. But it did not clear that of those who plan to go on vacation and had not yet hired them when Pedro Sánchez pressed the red button for the electoral advance. And those are the vast majority.. This circumstance explains why the number of people who have tried to excuse their presence at the polling stations on 23-J has skyrocketed with respect to the municipal elections on 28-M. If then there were 18,238 requests, now, in the middle of the summer season, the figure has catapulted to 32,169. Almost double. Specifically, 76% more.

This is confirmed by the report of the Ministry of the Interior on the excuses that the Spaniards make for not going to be part of the electoral tables of 23-J, to which EL MUNDO has agreed.

74% of excuses have been accepted. There are 23,757 people who already have substitutes, because the municipalities raffle more places than they need, to have substitutes. 21.5% of requests have been denied. In addition, there are 2,908 that had not yet been accounted for on the morning of July 18, which is when the government report is dated..

pending petitions

This document contains another striking fact. There are still 1,555 requests pending processing. In other words, as of July 18, almost 1,500 polling stations remain to be closed (it is understood that some of the excuses correspond to the same polling station).. In any case, there are many more than 1,000. And the figure could be higher, because there are 5,379 people who have not yet been notified if their case is favorable or if their justification is denied.

Of course, the figure will surely decrease between today and tomorrow. In addition, special emphasis must be placed on the fact that, in any case, the constitution of the tables is ensured. Because? Because the excuses that are not answered is as if they were not accepted. According to the Electoral Law, the positions of presidents or members of a polling station are mandatory. Which? A prison sentence of three months to one year or a fine of six to 24 months.

In Spain, 60,340 polling stations are formed and there are 543,060 polling station members. And 6% of them have claimed to be absent.

That said, the most innovative thing about the report -which has 10 pages and is full of comparative graphs- is that the enormous increase in excuses for not being at the polling stations is not precisely due to the fact that there were many people with vacations contracted in advance. They only represent 20% of the total.. one in five. The other 80% are people who allege other circumstances so as not to evade the process in the middle of the summer season -in which, by the way, most polling stations do not have air conditioning and temperatures above 35 degrees are expected in some provinces-.

And among them, the one that shoots the most is the care of “infants”. From 455 cases it goes to 1,104, 142% more. The care of children under 12 years of age is the justification for another 1,408 people, 81% more than in the elections two months ago. On the opposite side of the demographic pyramid, there are 3,033 who ask to get rid of working at the table on Sunday because they are over 65, 88% more than on 28-M. And claims for disability increased by 84%, and those for temporary disability, by 54%.

The care of relatives is what 1,435 people who had had to go to the table of their electoral college allege. They are 60% more than 28-M. And so a long list of “excuses” that show that the holidays are not the first reason. At least, the first stated reason.