The Government has recognized that those registered in the Electoral Census of Absent Residents (CERA) who have never lived in Spain, such as some descendants of exiles from the Civil War, are not required to submit any justificatory declaration to choose the municipality where they are registered for electoral purposes, that is, the constituency in which their vote will count.
This is stated in a parliamentary response directed to deputies of Vox, who asked about the criteria applied by the Electoral Census Office to assess whether the explanatory declaration provided for in the ministerial order of March 2011, which sets the technical rules for the monthly update of the Electoral Census, is sufficient to allow a voter not to register in the municipality of their last residence in Spain.
The Executive details that, according to the information provided by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), which the Electoral Census Office depends on, that ministerial order establishes that residents abroad who have previously lived in Spain must register in the municipality of their last residence in the country and that, if they choose a different one, they must "submit an explanatory declaration of their choice providing the documents that justify it."
However, this requirement does not apply to those who have never resided in Spanish territory, including the descendants of Spanish exiles who have availed themselves of the provision of the Democratic Memory Law known as the "grandchildren's law."
GREATER ROOTS OF THEIR ANCESTORS
These people who have not lived in Spain can register for electoral purposes in the municipality of "greater roots, their own or that of one of their ancestors," without the ministerial order establishing that they must provide any proof to support that choice.
"In the cases of voters who have never resided in Spain and who do not prove their own roots or those of their ancestors, article 4.3 determines that the municipality of registration in Spain will be determined ex officio by the Consular Office with the data it has," the Government's response states, disseminated by Europa Press.
The text also adds that the ministerial order "does not define a hierarchy of additional criteria nor a default municipality beyond the use of the data available to the consulate at that moment" and that "only the explanatory declarations of voters whose last residence was in Spanish territory will be mandatory."
FORM DEFECTS
Likewise, it is emphasized that the Electoral Census Office "may reject the movement sent by the Consular Office to the INE when the explanatory declaration has form defects (missing necessary data) or is illegible." In that form, the voter must state the reason for choosing a specific municipality for registration and declare that the data provided is truthful.
When the voter requests to be registered in a municipality different from their last residence in Spain, they are required to submit an explanatory declaration justifying the choice of the new municipality, whether due to greater personal ties, greater ties of their ancestors, or other reasons that must also be documented.
In the same response to Vox, the Government points out that, during the month of April 2026, 82.54% of those registered in the CERA whose last residence was a Spanish municipality maintained that same municipality as their electoral registration place, while 17.46% were registered in a municipality different from their last residence in Spain.
According to the report that the Electoral Census Office recently sent to the Central Electoral Board on this matter, the census confirms that it is the voters residing abroad who choose the municipality in which they register to vote and that, although the regulations allow consulates to carry out registrations ex officio if the voter does not indicate any municipality, in practice they do not exercise that authority and the decision always falls on the voters.