Electoral fraud: requested vote abroad
THE VOTE OF SPANIARDS LIVING ABROAD
This is, without a doubt, one of the most effective #electoralfrauds that exist: disenfranchising the majority of Spaniards with the right to vote who live abroad.
In fact, comparing how easy it is to vote and, at times, to commit fraud with postal voting in Spain, it is strange how difficult it is to vote for those living abroad.
Let’s remember: ELECTORAL FRAUD 4: Postal voting of SPANIARDS LIVING IN SPAIN
Well, coincidentally, most foreign votes are young votes that do not support traditional parties, and it is precisely these parties that decide how national and international postal voting works.
The right to vote was impaired with the amendment of Article 75 of the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime. The reform proposed by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (PSOE) in 2011 received the votes in favor of the PP, the Basque Nationalist Party, and Convergència i Unió. That agreement marked a before and after in the democratic participation of residents abroad. Right after the reform was approved, participation dropped from 31.74% in the 2008 general elections to 4.95% in 2015.
A vote that is no longer received at the residence address, as was the case before the law was amended, but must be requested in person at consular offices or embassies, with no guarantee that the vote will arrive, since many times it is not delivered on time by the postal service or is not delivered at all.
There are several variants of this FRAUD:
ELECTORAL FRAUD 5.1: THE BALLOTS NEVER ARRIVE
ELECTORAL FRAUD 5.2: PODEMOS BALLOTS DO NOT ARRIVE, BUT OTHERS DO
ELECTORAL FRAUD 5.3: YOU HAVE TO GO TO THE NEAREST EMBASSY, SOMETIMES HUNDREDS OR THOUSANDS OF KILOMETERS AWAY, TO REQUEST IT.
And if, after all, you manage to go to the embassy, have the ballots sent to you, receive them all, and be able to send them back, SOMETIMES THOSE VOTES DO NOT REACH THE BALLOT BOXES...
This tedious process begins with consular registration, for which there are two types: permanent resident and temporary resident. The first allows voting by mail or at the consulate itself, for which the ballots must have been received beforehand, since the consulate only has the ballot box. With the temporary modality, votes can only be sent by postal mail, which is never certain to have arrived unless expressly asked at the polling station itself.
After registration comes the “vote request” and sending it by regular mail. Postal expenses can be borne by the Spanish State itself, although they are capped and are usually not refunded or are refunded after some time. In some countries, such as Norway, voting can cost around 20 euros approximately. To the problem of deadlines, which have been extended until September 25 if voting at the consular ballot box, is added the impossibility for many emigrants to travel from their places of residence to the nearest consulate.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not sending Unidos Podemos ballots for the June 26 elections to Spanish emigrants
As if the ruego vote trick were not already sufficiently obstructing a fundamental right like voting, now the complaint of ‘extra’ irregularities is added by Marea Granate on its Facebook page.
2016-06-22 Does postal voting always work? Two cases of people who have not been able to vote in these elections
Of the 1,927,000 registered in the Census of Absent Residents (CERA), only 155,000 Spaniards have requested postal voting, according to data from the Electoral Census Office, dependent on the National Statistics Institute (INE), which has published provisional data. This figure of 'vote request' is similar to that of the last December 20 elections and means that 92% will not exercise their right.
2016-06-25 92% of residents outside the Spanish State will not vote on June 26