Mail-in votes requests reach 2.6 million for July Spanish election, marking all-time high

Mail-in votes requests have marked an all-time high ahead of the Spanish election held on July 23. Overall, 2,622,808 people requested a mail-in vote in Spain, as the Spanish Correos postal service confirmed on Friday.

The figure doubles (94.71%) the number of requests recorded during the April 28, 2019 Spanish election when fewer than one million people asked to vote by mail.

The previous record was set in 2016, with around 1,453,446 million citizens voting.

In the most recent elections in May, the one million mark for mail-in applications was also surpassed in Spain, up 5% on mail-in applications of the previous election four years earlier. 

The service published the figures on Friday, the day after the deadline to request such votes finished. Those who still have not cast their ballot and have requested to vote via Correos postal service will be able to do so until July 20.

In Catalan elections, the record for most citizens voting by mail was set in the 2021 vote, when amid the pandemic, 284,000 voters went to post offices to cast their ballot. One of them was Enric, who also requested his early vote for the July election as he told Catalan News: "I had bought plane tickets the day before the election was announced, so I did not think twice about voting by mail."

This time, in-person mail-in votes requests in Catalonia accounted for 224,207, most of them in Barcelona (186,404), followed by Girona (12,616), Lleida (10,710), and Tarragona (14,477).

Regarding those requested online, 52,142 Catalans asked to cast their ballot by mail.

Compared to the last general election in November 2019, workers at Correos post offices have increased their workload in the last few days since applications to vote by mail began. Laura, a worker in a post office in Barcelona, told this media outlet that "even though we offer a lot of other services, voting is taking up most of our time right now." 

CCOO union argued that the number of staff was insufficient for the workload that post offices were handling these days, and they urged more resources.

Extended opening times

Correos announced that post offices in Barcelona will be open on Saturday and Sunday for people to cast their ballots. On Saturday, offices will open from 9 am until 9 pm, and on Sunday from 9 am until 2 pm. 

And from Thursday, all post offices, which normally close at 8 pm, will be open until 10 pm.