The personnel of the navy, merchant navy and deep-sea fishing fleet flying the Spanish flag who have to remain on board from the announcement of the elections until they are held and, during said period, put into port within the national territory at predetermined times may exercise their right to vote in the following manner:
The census registration certificate may be requested from the Provincial Delegation of the Electoral Census Office where the voter is registered by radio-telegraphy, email or fax or by any other means that may be provided for the purpose.
The message will contain the following details:
Name and two surnames of the person in question.
National identity card number or foreigner’s identification number.
Date, province and municipality of birth.
Municipality of residence in which the person appears in the Electoral Census.
Name of the vessel on which the person has embarked.
Port(s) at which the vessel is due to arrive, indicating the specific dates on which this is set to take place.
In the event that the electoral documentation can be received by another vessel, the radio message will indicate the shipowner, consignee or vessel to which it is to be sent. For the purposes of applying for a postal vote, the radio-telegraphy services of the vessels will be regarded as delegated units of the Post Office Service and the expressly delegated Commanders and Captains or the Officer will be regarded as the personnel responsible for receiving the application.
Once the registration of the person in question has been verified, the Provincial Delegation of the corresponding Electoral Census Office will deem the application to have been received for all purposes and proceed to send the relevant documentation to the port or, as appropriate, the shipowner, consignee or vessel whose name has been designated.
Once the person in question has received the documentation, he/she will proceed to send the electoral documentation by registered and urgent mail from any of the ports at which the ship docks to the polling station where he/she is due to vote.
To ensure the exercise of the right to vote by post by Armed Forces personnel stationed outside the national territory in operations linked to the security and defence of Spain and its allies, within the framework of the international organisations of which Spain is a member, contributing to the maintenance of peace, stability and security and supporting humanitarian aid, from the date of the announcement of the elections until they are held, the following procedure will be followed:
The Commander of the vessel or head of the unit will send the list of personnel wishing to exercise their right to vote to the Directorate General of Personnel of the Ministry of Defence via the Chief of Defence Staff and the Army and Navy Chiefs of Staff.
The following will be recorded for each applicant:
Name and two surnames.
National identity card number.
Date, municipality and province of birth.
Municipality of residence in which the person appears in the Electoral Census.
The Directorate General of Personnel of the Ministry of Defence, from the date of the publication of the call in the corresponding official gazette and before the tenth day prior to the day of voting, will forward this list to the Electoral Census Office, which will send it to the corresponding Provincial Delegations.
Once the registration of the person in question has been verified, the Provincial Delegation of the corresponding Electoral Census Office will deem the application to have been received for all purposes and proceed to send the corresponding documentation to the Directorate General of Personnel of the Ministry of Defence so that it reaches it by means of the most urgent procedure possible.
The person who has applied to vote will proceed to exercise his/her right upon receipt of the documentation referred to in the previous point. The person in command of the vessel or in charge of the Unit will be responsible for the votes cast and will safeguard them, guaranteeing their security, integrity and secrecy until they are collected by the person in charge of their transport to national territory. The Directorate General of Personnel of the Ministry of Defence will send the votes received to the State Post and Telegraph Company before the second day prior to the day on which the elections are to be held and the latter will forward them as a matter of urgency to the corresponding polling station.
Inmates of penitentiary centres who are not deprived of the right to vote will vote by post in accordance with the following procedure:
In all penitentiary centres the electoral rules governing postal voting will be explained to the inmate population and informative sessions will be organised to explain and clarify the voting procedure.
For this purpose, the Management of each Penitentiary Centre -or the person delegated to do so- will request, within the first three days following the publication of the announcement of the elections, that a member of the Correos y Telégrafos, S.A. State Company travel to the centre on a specific date with the application forms for postal vote certificates that may have to be filled in there by the inmates who wish to exercise their right to vote.
If a person doesn’t have an ID card, the Interior Identity Card that all inmates have will suffice, provided that his/her photograph appears on it.
The Electoral Census Office will send sufficient envelopes and ballot papers for each process to the prison and these will be delivered in person by the delegate from the Post Office.
The inmate will choose the appropriate ballot paper for each process, place it in the appropriate voting envelope (or a ballot paper will not be included if they wish to abstain) and seal it. The voting envelope or envelopes and the census registration certificate will be included in the envelope addressed to the Presiding Officer and sealed.
The postal service will deliver these envelopes to the corresponding polling stations on election day.
Organic Law 5/1985 of 19 June on the General Electoral System establishes that an application for a postal vote, in the event that it cannot be submitted in person due to an illness or disability (which must be accredited by means of a free official medical certificate), may be made on the person in question’s behalf by another authorised person via notarial or consular channels by means of a document which will be drawn up individually for each person; several voters may not be included it and the same person may not represent more than one voter. The Electoral Board will verify the concurrence of all these circumstances in each case.
This service is completely free of charge.
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 (from the announcement of the elections until the deadline for applying to vote by post from Spain) in person with his/her ID card and the power of attorney to any post office and request the form to vote by post.
The Post Office services will forward all the documentation to the Electoral Census Office. The latter records on the census lists that a postal vote has been requested, in such a way that the person who requests the postal vote will no longer be able to vote in person at the polling station on election day, and send the person who represents him/her, by registered post, to the address indicated or, failing that, the address that appears in the census:
For each electoral process announced, a ballot paper for each of the political parties standing in the elections and a voting envelope into which the corresponding ballot paper will be inserted (or a ballot paper will not be included if they wish to abstain).
The electoral roll registration certificate.
An envelope containing the address of the polling station where they are entitled to vote.
An explanatory sheet.
This documentation must also be collected in person by the representative, subject to proof of his/her identity. If the person is not at home, he/she will have to pick it up in person at the corresponding Post Office.