The Electoral Board accepts that paid vacations can free from the polling station and requires the DNI to vote by mail

The Central Electoral Board (JEC) clarifies voting by mail and the obligation to go as a member to a polling station on vacation. The body that arbitrates the electoral processes has approved this Thursday an instruction that requires all those who vote by mail to identify themselves with the DNI “or similar document” at the time of depositing the vote at the post office. Neither can cast the vote in the mailbox.

But not only has he made that decision, which was already discounted, as this newspaper advanced, but he has also approved that having contracted vacations before May 29 can serve citizens to get rid of a polling station.

In relation to the composition of the polling stations, the Board has determined that “if the election day coincides with a trip or stay of a vacation nature, which has been hired before the date of calling the elections, whose cancellation causes economic damage or a serious disturbance to the applicant, can be considered as an excuse” that would exempt the voter from attending as a member of the polling station. To do this, documents must be provided to prove it.

Of course, from the Central Electoral Board they clarify that this is not a mandatory instruction, like that of voting by mail, but a “special interpretative criterion”, when general elections are held for the first time in the summer period. And that it will be the zone electoral boards that assess “case by case” if it seems to them that the excuse of the vacation trip is enough to exempt a person from being part of a table.

In other words, it will be the Zone Electoral Board that will decide if an amount of money represents sufficient economic damage or not.. It is up to your interpretation. There will be electoral boards that will accept cancellations and others that will not.. Although “there is going to be a flood of cases”, the Central Electoral Board cannot impose a general criterion for all of Spain, because this would not ensure the formation of the tables.

In any case, the criterion of the formation of the tables will prevail over that of the economic damage of the cancellation of the vacations. What does this mean? That if someone complains, but in their area there is no one who can replace them, they will have to go to the polling station and they will lose their already paid trip.

Another relevant point of the agreements of the Board is to register those who deposit the postal vote of people who cannot physically go to the Post Office. “If the voter cannot go in person to deliver the documentation, they must grant an authorization for the delivery to be made by another person, which must be signed by the voter and accompanied by a photocopy of their ID or similar document,” the JEC has indicated. it's a statement.

In this way, the person who casts the ballot would also be identified in that same authorization.. And the tracking of possible frauds would be immediate. In this way, and as EL MUNDO announced, a registry of the people who deliver the votes of others will be created, since the Post Office officials must attach the authorization to the file and send it to the corresponding electoral board..

It must be remembered that in Melilla – epicenter of the controversies over vote buying -, just by demanding the DNI, the long lines that were registered at the Post Office disappeared.

But the Board wants to do a “double check” and guarantee that the process is 100% respected, especially in the face of the appearance of “hoaxes”, say sources from the agency. The JEC has acted ex officio in the face of the social alarm generated by these poisonings and, above all, by the cases registered in the 28-M campaign. In other words, to “give a message of guarantees and confidence in the system.”

Another vote-buying investigation that made headlines has been that of Mojácar (Almería), where there are 11 people accused of trying to falsify local elections.

And in Murcia, the Civil Guard carried out a new operation in Albudeite for alleged vote buying in the 28-M elections with 13 detainees, including the PSOE mayoral candidate, Isabel Peñalver, as well as Héctor Martínez, number 19 in the candidacy of the socialist José Vélez for the autonomous Parliament and member of the regional Executive of the PSOE.