Postal voting for people with mobility problems: free medical certifications and powers of attorney

In the event that a voter is unable to submit this request in person at the Post Office due to an illness or disability (which must be accredited by means of a free official medical certificate), the postal vote request may be made on his/her behalf by another authorised person via notarial or consular channels by means of a document which will be drawn up individually; several voters may not be included it and an individual person may not represent more than one voter.

The competent Electoral Board will verify the concurrence of all these circumstances in each case.

The procedure is as follows:

Interested persons should contact a Notary Public, who will act, free of charge (General Council of Notaries) and provide the free official medical certificate referred to in article 72.c) of the LOREG.

The notary will travel to the voter’s place of residence, whether it be a hospital, a retirement home or the home of a relative. The same procedure used in ordinary postal voting will then be followed.

In other words: The person representing him/her may go (within the postal vote application period, from 4 April to 18 May) in person with his/her ID card and power of attorney to any Post Office and request the postal vote form.

The Post Office services will send all the documentation to the Electoral Census Office, which will record on the Census Lists that the request to vote by post has been made (and therefore VOTING IN PERSON WILL NO LONGER BE POSSIBLE) and send the following documentation to the proxy by registered post to the address indicated or, failing that, the address that appears in the Census:

  • Ballot papers and envelopes

  • the electoral census registration certificate;

  • an envelope containing the address of the corresponding polling station;

  • an explanatory sheet.

This documentation must also be collected in person by the representative, subject to proof of identity. If the person isn’t at home, he/she will have to pick it up in person at the corresponding Post Office.