Municipalities Hold Draws to Select Polling Station Members for November 29 Elections

Town halls across Spain have completed public draws to establish the polling station staff required for the general elections scheduled for Sunday, November 29. Municipal governments are currently in the process of notifying the hundreds of thousands of citizens chosen to oversee the voting and ballot counting procedures.

Participation as a member of a polling station is mandatory for all designated individuals. Each standard station requires a president and two members, alongside designated substitutes for each position. Across the nation, authorities are organizing tens of thousands of stations to accommodate the electorate, with municipalities like Murcia, Donostia, and Dénia finalizing their specific local polling setups.

In Murcia, a municipal plenary session held on Monday, November 2, selected 1,536 citizens via a random computer procedure to staff 521 polling tables across 138 locations. The local census includes 344,039 eligible voters. Meanwhile, Donostia carried out its draw to assign 4,704 individuals across its 196 tables and 38 voting centers, and Dénia selected 441 people for its 49 polling stations, which serve nearly 29,000 voters.

Citizens who have been selected can verify their status through official municipal online portals by entering their identification numbers and birth dates. Official notifications accompanied by instructional manuals are delivered directly to the residences of the designated individuals within days following the draws.

Individuals who have valid, legally recognized justifications to be excused from service can submit their allegations to the corresponding Electoral Zone Board. The standard legal timeframe to present these excuses is seven days from the receipt of the official notification. Acceptable grounds include specific personal, professional, or family situations, as well as pre-booked travel or vacation stays that would cause severe economic hardship or disruption if canceled.

The Electoral Zone Board evaluates each submitted request to determine its validity. Municipalities have also established dedicated office hours, online tools using digital certificates, and physical information desks to assist citizens with the procedure and to resolve last-minute logistical issues.

For those who fulfill the duty, the compensation has been set at a 75-euro per diem for the day. Additionally, employed individuals and public servants serving on a table are entitled to a full paid leave on election day and a reduced work schedule of five hours on the immediately following day. Authorities continue to stress that failing to appear or abandoning polling station duties without legitimate cause constitutes a criminal offense penalized by law with prison terms or substantial fines.