The vote for the Senate works differently from that of the Congress of Deputies. Although citizens receive two ballots in general elections, each one serves to elect a different chamber and has its own rules. In the case of the Senate, voters do not choose a closed list from a party, but can directly select the candidates they prefer.
This system, known as open lists, allows votes to be distributed among different political formations. Thus, a person can support several candidates from the same party or combine names from different candidacies, without having to choose all representatives from a single formation. Ahead of the general elections on November 29, knowing these differences is especially important. Agreements between parties to present joint candidacies for the Senate once again highlight a way of voting that allows citizens to individually decide which candidates they want to occupy a seat in the Upper House.
How many candidates can be marked on the Senate ballot?
The number of names each voter can mark depends on the electoral district in which they vote. In most Spanish provinces, four senators are elected, and each citizen can select up to three candidates. However, there are exceptions. In the islands of Gran Canaria, Mallorca, and Tenerife, as well as in Ceuta and Melilla, up to two names can be marked. In the other island constituencies, the maximum is one candidate.
The distribution is as follows: up to three candidates in provincial constituencies, up to two candidates in Gran Canaria, Mallorca, Tenerife, Ceuta, and Melilla, and up to one candidate in the rest of the island constituencies.
To vote, you must use the specific Senate ballot, which includes the names of the candidates and a box next to each one. The voter must mark the boxes corresponding to their choices, without exceeding the maximum allowed in their constituency. It is important to respect this limit: if more names than allowed are marked, the vote for the Senate is considered null. Conversely, a ballot without any mark is considered a blank vote, provided it meets the legal requirements.
What are open lists and how are seats distributed?
Open lists allow candidates to be chosen individually, without the vote having to go to a complete candidacy. This means that the voter can mark names from the same party or combine representatives from different political formations. For example, in a province where three candidates can be chosen, a voter can select two representatives from one party and one from another formation. They can also mark three candidates from different parties. In both cases, each name receives an individual vote.
The system is different from that of the Congress, where the voter chooses a candidacy and the seats are distributed among the parties based on the election results. In the Senate, however, candidates compete individually and those who get the most votes obtain the seat, until the positions assigned to each constituency are covered. This difference also explains why electoral alliances can be especially important in the Upper House. For the November 29 elections, the PSOE, Frente Amplio and other left-wing formations have agreed to run jointly in numerous Senate constituencies, while the PP and Vox are studying possible agreements. These strategies seek to concentrate support and improve the chances of obtaining representation.
However, even if parties present their candidates grouped in the same list, the voter retains the freedom to choose the names they prefer. The candidacies appear organized by political formations on the ballot, but the marks are counted individually. Furthermore, not all senators reach the Upper House through general elections. A part is designated by the autonomous parliaments, based on the population of each community and the legally established criteria. Therefore, citizens directly elect the majority of senators, while the rest access through this autonomous procedure.
