Spanish consulates race to list naturalized voters before Supreme Court deadline on 28 October

A tight deadline for consulates

The Supreme Court asked the government on Friday, 23 October, to hand over by 28 October the list of 163,020 naturalized Spaniards whose vote in the 29 November general election is currently suspended. According to El Mundo, a consul said the internal schedule is stricter: the data must reach the Palacio de Santa Cruz by diplomatic pouch by 15:00 Spanish time on Tuesday, 27 October, so it can go to the court on Wednesday. The same consul said consulates effectively had 24 hours less than the court allowed, since Mexico City is seven hours behind Spain and Buenos Aires four.

Working from numbers, not names

The government holds statistical figures for the naturalized but not the names attached to them, and some files exist only in paper registers that staff must check by hand. El Mundo reports that a digital tool promised to consulates in mid-September was never fully implemented, so staff compiled the list in an Excel sheet after extensive overtime. Sources cited by the paper criticised what they described as an overly accommodating approach by the minister. Albares called the work laborious and complex, saying there is very little documentation and some archives hold thousands of files.

On Monday morning Albares told Radio Nacional de España:

“Literally, the entire Spanish foreign service is devoted to complying with the Supreme Court's orders.”

He also denied that the Supreme Court is seeking to commit electoral interference, calling the idea that the government wants another clash with the judiciary absurd. Albares and Félix Bolaños could face a fine if the court order is not met, a risk the minister addressed in an ABC interview:

“The only interest is to comply with the Supreme Court's orders.”

Ballots of excluded voters stay sealed

El Confidencial reports that two rulings issued on Friday, 23 October, by Section Four of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber set out for the first time what happens to ballots from voters later removed from the CERA. Consulates may not reject those votes, but must keep the envelopes apart and record this in the consular minutes. In Spain, provincial electoral boards may place in the ballot box only the envelopes of voters still listed after the purge, so the rest are never opened or counted. The Electoral Census Office must first send voting documents to everyone registered in the CERA closed on 1 August, including those affected, and the purge follows once the government delivers its list.

Hazte Oír seeks a wider suspension

Hazte Oír asked the Supreme Court on Monday, 26 October, to identify the adult children of naturalized beneficiaries and extend the suspension to them. The association relies on the court's September ruling, which found a founded and serious risk to the objectivity of the electoral process, and argues that the risk persists for these adult children:

“That danger persists regarding the children of those affected who, being of legal age, meet the voting requirements and appear on the census applicable to the 29 November elections.”

The association says the government must deliver the nominal list of beneficiaries this week and asks the Junta Electoral Central and the Census Office for a breakdown of CERA registrations. It states that no estimate exists for the children but cites 195,872 people naturalized through their parents under the earlier Historical Memory law as a precedent. It also points to an El Mundo report of 25 October, which said the children of people with suspended votes could still vote even if naturalized as children.

Senate rejects Vox request and the law's origin

On Monday the Mesa of the Senate's Diputación Permanente, where the PP holds a majority, rejected a Vox request for an urgent report from the Venice Commission. A twelve-page report from the Senate's legal services concluded that the Diputación Permanente lacks powers for such an initiative once the Cortes Generales are dissolved, though the Senate itself may request opinions, as it did in December 2023 on the Amnesty Law. The dispute traces back to a provision of the Democratic Memory Law that allowed descendants of Francoist exiles to obtain Spanish nationality. A government instruction treated everyone who left Spain between 18 July 1936 and 31 December 1955 as an exile, so descendants did not have to prove it, and Vox and Iusticia Europa appealed the instruction as null.