Understanding the Spanish Electoral System and Suffrage
Elements of Suffrage
1. Constituency: It is divided into colleges and tables, which are territorial and personal units. The constituency is more important than schools and tables because it is the sum, and what comes out of there becomes seats.
2. The Nominations: Nominations are in each division. They are also single-member (one candidate) and multi-member (many candidates). In each district, several positions are chosen and, therefore, several candidates are presented. Whoever has the most votes wins. Other votes are lost, no use. There are three kinds of multi-member, two exist in Spain and the other does not:
- The closed and blocked lists: Physically, it is a list of candidates on the ballot. It is called closed because nobody goes in or out; the candidates are those who are blocked and it is called because the candidates cannot change their order, then the order is locked.
- List closed and locked: It is a variant that does not exist in Spain. Those who vote can change the order of the candidates, but only a limited number.
- Open lists: The Senate votes for open lists. It is open for all candidates of all parties to go together.
What Happens in an Electoral List System Like Ours?
Our electoral system is closed and blocked lists. It is calculated by electoral formulas. How many ways are there? There are five kinds of formulas. Only studied in Spain is that of Victor d’Hondt, a professor who died in the late nineteenth century.
On election night, a picture is made for each constituency (for example, the island of Tenerife).
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| A | 100 | 100 / 2 = 50 | 33.33 | 25 |
| B | 60 | 60 / 2 = 30 | 20 | 15 |
| C | 30 | 30 / 2 = 15 | 10 | |
| D | 15 | 15 / 2 = 7.50 | 5 |
Representatives of Each Island Elected by District
Tenerife: 15, La Gomera: 4, El Hierro: 3, La Palma: 8, Gran Canaria: 15, Fuerteventura: 7, and Lanzarote: 8
The proportional electoral systems are not (technically impossible since for it the number of deputies would be indeterminate).
When we say that it is not democratic or undemocratic, it means that it is not proportional or inequitable, but if it is democratic. The proportionality of the system can be improved.
Classification of Electoral Systems
- Looking proportionality.
- They do not seek proportionality (the majority).
- Systems that yield the majority.
- Systems that yield proportional.
Number of Deputies Elected in Each Constituency
The system has a majority performance in the Canary Islands, being a proportional system. The number of deputies in the Canaries is not proportional to the population. To elect a deputy in El Hierro requires less than 1000 votes. To Gran Canaria, it takes a minimum of 18,000 or 20,000 votes. The value of the vote of the person to vote in La Gomera or El Hierro is worth 18 times that of Gran Canaria. The system is the disproportion canary 1 / 18, and then followed by the Basque system in which the disproportion becomes a maximum of 1-4. The rest of Spain is usually 1-3, this is in general.
Voting
Whenever there is an election, there are people who can vote and some who do not. We look at the universe of people who can vote, and if we call it Universal Suffrage. People who stay at home and do not go to vote are called passive abstention, while the number of people who will vote are the votes cast. By definition, the votes cast plus abstention passive is the electoral roll. In turn, the votes cast can be decomposed into 3 classes:
- Vote for a candidate, we can express a preference, which is what is called votes cast, is this for any candidate.
Blank voting: is to put a voting envelope empty, giving no preference for candidates. Null voting: if you write something in the vote and it is null, it is when you do not want to vote for anyone or ignorance.
If the envelope appears on a ballot and the same ticket is valid, it is counted by 1. If different parties, it is void.
Votes cast = White + Vote + Null Vote.
- White vote + votes cast = valid vote.
- Blank Vote + abstention vote null and active (people who have voted).
Within the passive abstention, it usually distinguishes an extension that is voluntary, and the other is technical or inadvertent, i.e., those who want to vote but because of circumstances beyond their control have prevented it.
The right to vote is voluntary in Spain, but there are countries where voting is mandatory.
From the day you close the census until election day, there are people who die, and those votes are counted in the passive abstention.
All we are told is transformed by constituency.