In February 2024, Galicians voted in their regional elections; In April, there was autonomous communities in the Basque Country and in May, the catalan elections. Now, on June 9, European elections take place, which although they are the fourth elections that have taken place so far this year, they are the first in which all Spaniards (with the right to vote) are called. More than 38 million Spaniards have been called to cast their ballots this Sunday and elect the 61 deputies that Spain will send to Brussels over the next five years to defend the interests of nationals from the European Parliament.

As in all elections, the same doubts arise: how much time do I have at work to be able to go vote? Will there be different envelopes at the polling stations? ¿Where should I vote?? And, another classic: From what time can I vote? Given that the European ones have some important differences with respect to the general, municipal or regional ones, and that they are held at the same time in different countries, it is common to ask this question, hoping that Voting hours vary to adapt to the community bloc. But the truth is that there is no variation with the rest of the elections held in Spain.

So that, The voting hours are exactly the same. than the one that the Galicians, the Basques and the Catalans had in their respective regional elections and the same one in the municipal or general elections that were held in 2023. The first to go to schools must be all those who have been summoned as members of the electoral table (also substitutes): these must be at their respective polling stations at 8:00 a.m., so that the polling stations can be set up that will then give way to the voting process.

The electoral colleges They are considered open once the president of each polling station authorizes it., something that happens from 9:00 in the morning. If there are no incidents, at this time the tables will begin to be enabled for voting and voting hours for the European elections officially begin. As in the rest of the processes, in Spain voting is carried out uninterruptedly for 11 hours, unless there is an incident that paralyzes or suspends the voting. So that, The polling stations will be open until, around 8:00 p.m.the presidents of each table close the period to deposit the ballots.

Is it possible to vote after 8:00 p.m.?

This is a question with different possible answers. As a general rule, Polling stations in Spain close at 8:00 p.m., so from this time on it should be impossible to introduce any ballots into the polls. Of course, it depends on several factors. If a polling station has taken longer to open the voting process for whatever reason – for example, because one of the members of the polling station has arrived late, due to the absence or insufficiency of ballots or due to some structural problem at the polling station -, voting hours the same time must be extended. That is, if a table takes 25 minutes to enable the polls to vote, it will have to extend its voting hours until 8:25 p.m. in this case.

The same would happen if throughout the day, Some incident forces the voting process to stop. In this case, the time it remains ‘closed’ will also have to be added to the schedule, so in this case too, voting could be done beyond this time.

If, on the other hand, the process of constituting the table and the development of the election day take place without incidents or suspensions, there is a possibility to vote beyond closing time: that the voter is already within the school facilities. As a general rule, at 8:00 p.m. voters will no longer be allowed to enter the voting centers, but if a person was already inside the center but it took longer to reach their polling station, they could vote, as long as the president of the board authorizes itsomething that usually happens without anyone causing problems.