MADRID — About 40.48 percent of registered voters had cast their ballots in Spain’s national elections by 2 p.m., Spain’s National Electoral Commission reported, up two percentage points compared to turnout registered at the same hour in November 2019 elections.
This turnout does not include mail-in ballots, which could significantly increase the final figure. In these elections, Spaniards voted by post in record numbers. The first elections will take place in the middle of summer, when more than a quarter of registered voters are on vacation. Around 2.47 million votes were processed by the country’s state postal service; These ballot papers are already available at the polling stations, but are only counted at the end of the day.
More than 37 million Spaniards are registered for these elections, which will decide whether the country remains ruled by a left-wing coalition led by socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, or whether power instead shifts to centre-right Popular’s Alberto Núñez Feijóo, a candidate open to forming a government with the far-right Vox party.
Despite fears that some of the voters tasked with policing polling stations would not turn up, Spanish authorities reported no incidents. Even the extreme heat does not seem to have affected voter turnout. Though numerous regions are on alert due to scorching temperatures, voters are arriving at a steady pace and many are using fans to keep cool while waiting in line.
Spain’s Directorate-General for Transport this afternoon implemented a special strategy to ensure voters arriving from holiday homes can get to their polling stations to cast their vote.
Traffic on the high-speed line between Valencia and Madrid is currently suspended due to a fire near Xátiva. Throughout the morning, passengers complained that Spanish railways were complicating their election day by not offering them alternative travel options.
Polling stations in mainland Spain are open until 8pm tonight. The first extrapolations of the results are expected at 21:00 when polling stations in the Canary Islands close.
But one place where the voting process is already complete is the village of Villarroya, where all seven registered voters cast their ballots within 25 seconds of polling stations opening this morning. The small village in La Rioja province has long been proud of having finished the poll as the fastest Spanish municipality. This time they managed to achieve that goal in three seconds less than in the local elections last May.