The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has assured this Sunday in Melilla that the Government is studying to “reform” the electoral law so that the voter’s identification by mail is also required when casting the vote and not only in the application and in the reception of the electoral documentation. Grande-Marlaska has put this possibility on the table during a visit to the autonomous city, where he has gone to support the PSOE candidate for the Assembly, Gloria Rojas, in the 28M elections. Melilla is experiencing a muddy campaign due to the judicial investigation into possible electoral fraud in voting by mail, after receiving an avalanche of requests for suffrage by post and given the high indications of buying those votes. The situation has led the Electoral Board of the Zone (JEZ) of Melilla to demand that the votes by mail must be delivered in person and with the DNI. “We value the possibility and the need for this reform of article 73 of the LOREG [Ley Orgánica del Régimen Electoral General] so that the right to vote by mail materializes in a very personal way, right up to the last moment”, said Grande-Marlaska.
Dozens of suspects are being investigated in the border city at the request of the National Police. Vote buying networks usually resort to capturing votes by post because it is the system that most guarantees that the census takers the ballot of the party involved in capturing votes in exchange for money or gifts, since the citizen receives the Documentation at your home from the postman by certified mail, with your ID, but anyone can then deliver the envelope to the office, or even deliver several envelopes, without any identification.
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The Electoral Board of the Melilla Zone agreed on Wednesday to make it mandatory for citizens who have requested a vote by mail in the autonomous city ―11,707 people― to go to the Post Office and identify themselves with their ID to make the vote effective. The Central Electoral Board (JEC) ratified the measure on Thursday and extended the obligation for Melilla residents to cast their ballots in the rest of the offices in Spain.
The Minister of the Interior preferred to be “cautious” this Sunday when he was asked about the investigation of voting by mail in Melilla. “Let’s all be respectful of the secrecy of the proceedings and of the work of the Police and the Civil Guard,” Grande-Marlaska pointed out. “All the necessary measures have been taken. The exercise of voting by mail is being guaranteed. There will not be any type of fraud either in Melilla or anywhere in Spain. The measures have been adopted and the investigation is being carried out”, added the minister.
The decision of the Electoral Board of Melilla to require the DNI of anyone who was going to deliver the vote by mail “dissuaded”, according to police sources, some of those investigated for electoral fraud from delivering the alleged votes bought at the Post Office from Melilla. The Melilla Electoral Board also rejected on Friday the request of the PSOE that the votes by mail be deposited in a separate ballot box during electoral day and the request of the Coalition for Melilla that the 761 votes deposited in the Post Office be annulled before it was imposed. the obligation to deliver them in person, by the voter and with the DNI. The judge in charge of the case had already ordered last week that anyone who delivered five or more votes in the Post Office be identified. According to the Government Delegation, no one exceeded that number.
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