Notifications to occupy the polling station in the european elections June are already arriving. Some social media users joke and regret having received the notification along with the instruction manual. “I’ve already had to go to the polling station 5 times. It wouldn’t be bad if my city council did the initial draw as well,” jokes a young woman on her account on the social network X. “I’m literally the most unlucky person in the world, it will be the fourth time I vote and second time at the polling station, I really don’t know what I’m doing with my life,” laments another.

The truth is several town councils have carried out the draw during this week and last. Each of the polling stations It must necessarily be made up of a president and two members; Each of them must also have two substitutes. This implies that for each polling station there will be a total of 9 people summoned. In the case of being a substitute, you are also obliged to appear on election day, the Sunday June 9. However, once notified, the voter can present an excuse to ‘get rid’ of the table, as long as some requirements are met.

How to consult the polling station with DNI

As a general rule, voters receive a notification at your home to inform you that it is your turn to vote. On the other hand, some town councils publish their lists on their websites of the town hall after having carried out the draws so that citizens can check if they are members of the electoral table by entering their DNI. In the event that the citizen has not been notified, each electoral board will decide whether to give the position at the polling station to the next person on the list or send the notification again.

Counting of votes in the elections in Spain.

Counting of votes in the elections in Spain. | EP

Requirements to get rid of the polling station

If the voter wants to present an argument for not attending after receiving the notification, they must resort to the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG) which includes the reasons why it is justified. not serve as a member from a polling station:

  • Be over 65 years old.
  • Be a person with some type of disability.
  • Have the condition of disability pensioner absolute permanent and great disability.
  • Or a situation of temporary incapacity for workaccredited by the corresponding medical leave.
  • Be gestating from the six months pregnant. The corresponding period of maternity break.
  • Being confined in penitentiary centers or psychiatric hospitals, which will be accredited by certification from those responsible for them.
  • Have previously been part of a polling station, at least three times in the last ten years.
  • Be the victim of a crime and prove that you have to be part of a polling station in the college where the perpetrator of the crime (convicted or investigated) is called to the polls.

On the other hand, they add responsibilities or family reasons that may justify the designated member of a polling station not attending the electoral appointment:

  • Be a mother, during the period of natural or artificial breastfeeding, until the baby is nine months old.
  • Caring directly and continuously for a family member up to the second degree of consanguinity or affinity who, for reasons of age, accident or illness, cannot care for themselves.
  • That there be family events of special relevance on the day of the election that cannot be postponed or in which the postponement causes significant economic damage, provided that the interested party is the protagonist or has a family relationship with him up to the second degree of consanguinity.
  • Being a mother or father of minors under fourteen years of age, when it is proven that the other parent cannot take care of the minor during election day, and the interested party also lacks ascendants or other older children who can do so.
  • Caring directly and continuously, for reasons of legal guardianship, of children under eight years of age or people with physical, mental or sensory disabilities.

Other cases are added:

  • To have changed habitual residence to a place located in another autonomous community when, in addition to said circumstance, the difficulty of being part of a polling station is justified.
  • People with a physical or mental injury, illness or disease that, although it has not given rise to a declaration of incapacity for work, prevents the exercise of the functions of a member of a polling station, or makes the exercise of such functions particularly difficult or painful.
  • Have a risk situation during pregnancy during the first six months of it.
  • Have a surgical intervention or relevant clinical tests on the day of the vote, in the days immediately preceding it, or on the day following it, provided that they cannot be postponed.
  • Belonging to confessions or religious communities in which the ideology or the closure regime is contrary or incompatible with participation in a polling station.
  • voters who are permanent total disability pensioners for a specific profession, provided that the factors determining the incapacity also occur by analogy in the development of the functions of a member of the electoral board.

There are also work reasons:

  • Professionals who must participate in public events to be held on voting day, which are planned prior to the electoral call, when the interested party cannot be replaced and their non-participation forces the event to be suspended, causing relevant economic damages.
  • Those who, during voting day, must provide their services to the Electoral Boards, the Courts and the public Administrations entrusted with electoral functions.
  • Those who must lend during election day essential community services of vital importance, such as medical, health, civil protection, firefighters, among others.
  • The media directors of general information and the heads of the information services that must cover election day.

Once the notification is received, the voter has a seven-day period to file a complaint before the Zonal Electoral Board any justified and documented cause that prevents them from accepting the position.