Correos is requesting an extension of time to deposit a mail vote until 2:00 p.m. on Friday

Curios had asked the Central Electoral Council to extend the mail-in vote deposit period until 2:00 pm tomorrow, Friday, July 21, which in this election broke all records with 2,622,808 applications, due to the conduct of the elections. The elections are in the middle of the summer holidays. The deadline for voting in the Postal Service offices officially ends tonight, the post offices They were open until 22.00, outside normal office hours, to give time to exercise their right to the 230,000 citizens who have requested to vote by mail and have not yet done so. Vox and PP have also generally requested an extension of voting time. Records indicate that every time the Post Office requested an extension, it was granted. The Central Electoral Council (JEC) meets from 1:00 p.m. on Thursdays. Mail-in votes that have already been resolved exceed 91%, which is the average for processed ballots in other elections since 2005.

The application for extension of post office voting, dated 11:00 today, specifies that an increase in the deadline for voting cannot be later than two Friday afternoons because if it were extended further, it would put “at very serious risk” that it would be It is impossible for mail-in voting to reach polling stations in time to be counted on Sunday, July 23, the date of the election. The company explains that expansion is possible because it is about serving “a small number of voters.”

JEC will in almost all probability accept a Post Office order, even more specifically than a Vox and PP order, in line with what it has done in the past and with the strategy pursued since the beginning of this strange and unprecedented summer campaign for the public company to extend the working hours in its offices as much as possible, employing 19 thousand An employee to cover injuries and 8,000 vacancies for employees who took leave this month in an atmosphere of suspicion and criticism launched by the opposition People’s Party and by some. corporate associations.

The first to target the post office The popular leader himself, Alberto Núñez Viejo, was that he was president of that company between 2000 and 2003, just over a week ago, at a rally, He asked the postmen to distribute all the votes before the term expired for the Spaniards, regardless of their superiors “to be able to vote and exercise their “constitutional rights”. Feijóo even predicted that in his first cabinet he promised to pay the postman for the extra work they did.

Criticism was leveled by some of the General Company’s unions against the Post Office leadership for lack of foresight, for spending too long launching reinforcements and taking the opportunity to attack the presidency, exercised by Juan Manuel Serrano, former chief of staff of Pedro Sánchez, whom they blamed for mismanagement and increasing public debt. The Post Office has assured since the beginning of this particular campaign, because of the time of year in which it took place, with many people out of their homes, because of the summer trips and because of the temperatures, that it will abide by its obligations and that all votes submitted will be processed in a timely manner. The final data, pending the final balance that will be presented on Friday, at the end of the term, is in agreement with the company.

What affects most is what happens closer. In order not to miss anything, subscribe.

Participate

The government company has already implemented 91%, not counting the required postal votes, and this can be resolved between today and 2:00 pm this Friday, which is the average of the postal votes resolved in all the elections that took place in Spain. since 2005. On some occasions, the number of votes that cannot be cast has fallen to 6% and on others it has remained at 13%.

The state company asserts that its intention is to facilitate the forwarding of electoral documents to persons who have requested that they be sent to an address other than the one they initially indicated. The order note to the JEC asserts that such applications from voters have been processed “when there is no physical time for them to complete their mail-in vote if the certificate transfer period at the post office expires today.” It is for this main reason that the postal company is requesting an extension, although it is recognized that this new extension will involve “extraordinary effort and human resources, especially logistics”.

The Central Electoral Council, at its meeting, will study the request to extend the mandate of PP, Vox and Correos, which will be accepted in the near future, in accordance with the two precedents in other electoral processes.

Curios explained this morning that 91% of the 2,622,808 voters who requested to vote by mail have already exercised their right, but another 230,000 citizens have not yet exercised their right to postal ballot. In addition, the public company confirmed that about 170,000 documents still had to be collected from post offices.

in In the last local election on 28-M, 1,082,030 mail-in ballot applications were registered, 5% more than in the previous election. In the April 2019 general election, 1,351,659 people exercised this right, a number that dropped to 997,530 in the repeat election in November of the same year. Until now , The record was set by appointment with polls in June 2016And 1,460,131 citizens (3.9% of the total) voted by mail.

Receive our newsletter every afternoon Election newspaperwith analysis by Riccardo de Quirol, deputy director, and Luis Barbero, editor-in-chief of the edition.