MADRID — Some 40.48 percent of registered voters had cast their ballots in Spain’s national elections as of 2 p.m., Spain’s national electoral commission reported, an increase of two percentage points compared to the turnout registered at the same hour during the elections in November of 2019.
That turnout figure does not include mail-in ballots, which could boost the final figure substantially. Spaniards have opted to vote by mail in record numbers in these elections, the first to be held in the middle of summer, when over a quarter of registered electors are on holiday. Some 2.47 million votes have been processed by the country’s state-owned postal service; those ballots are already at polling stations but will only be counted at the end of the day.
Over 37 million Spaniards are registered to vote in these elections, which will determine if the country continues to be run by a left-wing coalition led Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, or if instead the reins of power will pass to the center-right Popular Party’s Alberto Núñez Feijóo, a candidate who is open to forming a government with the far-right Vox party.
Despite fears that some of the electors tasked with overseeing polling stations would fail to show up, Spanish authorities did not report any incidents. Likewise, the extreme heat doesn’t seem to have depressed turnout. Although numerous regions are on alert because of the scorching conditions, voters are showing up at a steady pace, with many using fans to keep cool while they wait in line.
Spain’s General Directorate for Traffic has executed a special strategy this afternoon to ensure that electors travelling from holiday homes can make it to their polling stations to cast their ballots.
Circulation on the high-speed railway line linking Valencia and Madrid is currently suspended due to a fire near Xátiva; throughout the morning passengers complained that the Spanish railway service was complicating their election day by failing to offer them alternate travel arrangements.
Polling stations in continental Spain are open until 8 p.m. tonight, with the first projections of the results expected at 9 p.m., when polls close in the Canary Islands.
But one place where the voting process has already concluded is the village of Villarroya, where all seven registered electors voted within 25 seconds of polling stations opening this morning. The tiny village, which is located in the province of La Rioja, has long prided itself on being the quickest Spanish municipality to complete the election; this time around they managed to achieve that objective in three seconds less than in last May’s local elections.
