Understanding the Electoral Process: Voting Explained
ITEM 8: The Vote The vote is the central moment of any electoral process. The electoral legislature establishes a range of security measures and precautions for use by each party to avoid mistakes or electoral fraud. If fraud occurs, the LOREG has established mechanisms to address the situation, and the results reflect the will of the electorate.
In Art. 23 EC, the vote is seen as a right for which nobody is obliged to vote; the elector may choose to vote or abstain. Among the votes cast, we can distinguish between valid votes for candidates, blank votes, and void ballots. The difference between the votes cast and votes for nominations constitutes what are considered sterile or infertile votes, devoid of any effect from the date of issue, by the will of the voter, or due to error.
The members of the electorate who have chosen to participate can do so by voting in person or by mail.
Characteristics of the Franchise
The franchise will be exercised through universal, free, equal, direct, and secret suffrage.
- Universal: The number of votes given to every citizen; one man, one vote. It’s also possible that postal voting is based on the need to allow voting for those who cannot vote in person.
- Free: Nobody can be forced or coerced by any means in the exercise of their right to vote.
- Equal: Requires equality in the numerical value of each vote.
- Direct: The electorate directly elects candidates for a given position. In our electoral system, there are two exceptions: the legislature of each Community may appoint one Senator and one more for every million inhabitants, and Art. EC 141.2 introduces a system of indirect election of the Provincial.
- Secret: For voters to exercise their right freely.
Types of Lists
- Single List: The ballot contains only one public vote that the voter has to accept or reject.
- Closed and Blocked Lists: The order of candidates is invariant for the voter, who can only exercise a vote of membership by one of the lists presented.
- Closed and Blocked Lists: It is not possible to include or exclude any candidate from the list; however, the order of candidates is variable. The voter may vote for a list as presented or may rearrange candidates.
- Open Lists: In addition to placing candidates in the order you want, voters can combine several candidates from different lists into a new order and introduce new names.
Regular Issuance
The LOREG Art. 84 states that voting begins at 9:00 AM with the words of the President and continues without interruption until 8:00 PM.
However, for reasons of force majeure, the President, under their responsibility, may order the suspension of voting once initiated or direct that it not always start, with a reasoned letter to be sent immediately to the provincial electoral board. If, before the suspension order, some ballots had been deposited in the ballot box or boxes, these will be destroyed immediately.
At 8:00 PM, it is announced loudly that the vote will end, and only those who are able to vote in the Electoral College or access it may do so. After the Chairman opens the envelopes of absentee ballots and inserts them into the ballot box after voting members of the Bureau and finally the auditors. Then, the operations of scrutiny are given.
The voter must prove their identity by showing the members of the table their ID card, passport, or driving license, which must display the photo of the holder (or in local elections and European Parliament, foreign citizens prove their identity to vote with the green card). However, the exhibition of these documents may not be necessary if the elector is known to members of the board and there are no doubts about their identity.
The vowels, and if the auditors recorded in a numbered list the name of the voter in order to cast their vote, stating the number that appears in the Census or by reference to the certification or sentence.