An assisted voting system is provided for blind voters.
Voters who are unable to select a ballot paper or put it in the envelope can be helped to vote by a person they trust.
However, there is an accessible voting procedure available to these people.
People with visual disabilities registered in the electoral roll who can use the Braille system of reading and writing and have a degree of disability of at least 33% or are affiliated to the Spanish National Organisation for the Blind (ONCE).
Voters who want to use the accessible voting procedure have to apply for it between 4 and 31 August.
The application can be made by calling freephone 900 400 012.
The telephone operator will ask for the following details of the applicant:
- Name
- Surname(s)
- Date of birth
- National Identity Card (DNI)
- Address
- Contact phone number
The accessible voting procedure consists of using standard ballot papers and envelopes which are accompanied by additional documents in Braille which make it possible to identify the voter´s choice securely and therefore with complete voting secrecy.
On the day of the election voters who have indicated they wish to use the accessible voting procedure should go to the polling station committee where they have to cast their ballot.
The chair of the polling station committee or if need be one of its members will give the visually impaired voter the case containing the documents they need to vote.
The documents include:
- Explanatory instructions printed in Braille.
- A ballot envelope.
- An envelope for each list with an indication of the list both printed and in Braille, and inside each of these envelopes a ballot paper for the list indicated on the outside.
Prior to this the chair or another member of the committee has to check the voter´s National Identity Card (DNI) against the list of people who have indicated they wish to use this procedure (the polling station committee has this list).
Equally the chair of the committee or if need be one of the other members has to indicate and help the voter to access the area of the polling station fitted out for using the documents provided.
Once the voter has made their choice, the same voting procedure as described for the rest of the voters is followed.
Nonetheless, this accessible voting procedure is voluntary, so people who wish to can go straight to the polling station committee and cast their ballots with the help of a person they trust.