According to a comparison made by the Pew Research Center in May 2018, Spain is still far from the top positions in terms of electoral participation. The study noted that 61.2% of Spaniards participated in the polls in a consultancy made up of previous elections in most of the world’s developed countries, a far cry from 87% in Belgium, 80% in Denmark and 79% in Australia. , the three countries with the highest participation rates in the world.
The CIS releases data in April about voters’ intentions to go to the polls and whom to vote for. Innovations in the political scene are catching the attention of the youngest. Yolanda Díaz’s Sumar Formation and Santiago Abascal’s Vox party are cutting into the youngest vote. Vox, which polled 3,656,979 votes in the last general election, is preferred by only two in ten women and voters today, having its highest incidence among people aged 35 to 44 and seven in ten men. . 18-24; In which its effect is maximum.
No political party benefits from demonetisation. Or at least it seems that way in the beginning. Generally, progressive voters are more likely to vote no, which is why a large turnout could compromise left-wing parties and even their coalitions. Some countries impose fines for not voting, which is not the case in Spain.
There are studies that give us a clear indication of how much the absenteeism figures in Spain vary in different electoral elections. The development of electoral boycotts in Spain has been highly erratic. This has fluctuated between 20.1 percent in 1982 in statewide elections and 45.2 percent in 1989 European elections. Even if we stick to the same type of polls, 11 points is different from the 1982 minimum and the 1979 maximum.
We vote differently depending on the type of election. Elections considered most important, which elect members of Congress and a substantial portion of the Senate, always register a high percentage of participation, with maximums reaching over 30 percent. At the same time, all calls register a significantly lower level of rest participation. Here the percentages are reversed, with an absenteeism that reaches 45 percent and has never been below 30 percent. The participation averages of the three types of statewide elections clearly state the situation: 25.9 per 100 average turnout in legislative, 34.5 per 100 in municipal and maximum 38.9 per 100 in European.
In Menorca’s municipal elections in 2019 we see the majority of cities that are above 40%.
In each particular election there is one core of voters and another of non-voters, but we cannot generally speak of the two categories as if they were clearly defined and isolated. In fact, a very large segment of the population oscillates easily from one behavior to another. Therefore, if the body of “pure” moderates (say 20 percent of 1977 or 1982) is seen to be “adulterated” in elections such as the 1989 European or 1991 municipal elections, a region is included in this category. It seems easy to understand that sociological profiles are relatively unmarked or, at least, that it is necessary to speak of highly changing profiles depending on the political characteristics of each call.
Among the attempts to explain the reasons for not voting, we find all kinds of classifications of reasons for not voting: technical, sociological, political, alienation, context, etc. However, we can distinguish between explanations that emphasize continuity, as compared to another set of explanations with changing values and that will allow us to approach elements of change from one call to the next.
