Electoral law: voting for students living away from home is on the way – who can apply and how

One in ten voters lives away from the municipality in which they are registered on the electoral roll. For them, the electoral reform – which has just received final approval – introduces, for the first time, a permanent framework for voting away from one’s registered place of residence, following pilot schemes linked to specific elections: the 2024 European elections, reserved for students, and the 2025 referendums, which were also open to workers and people receiving medical treatment. For the referendum on the justice system in March, however, no provision had been made.

The provision stems from an amendment tabled by the centre-right parties, with Fabio Roscani (FdI) as the lead signatory, which was unanimously approved by the Chamber of Deputies. Anyone who, for study or work, is staying in a municipality in a region other than their region of residence may request to vote in their municipality of temporary residence, provided that their intended stay is for at least nine months. For those outside their region for medical treatment, the threshold is reduced to three months, provided that the election date falls within that period.

The Senate then extended this provision to carers, through an amendment first tabled by FdI Senator Domenica Spinelli and reworded by the government: anyone who has been caring for a person undergoing medical treatment in another region for at least three months will be able to vote there if the elections fall during that period. A voter registered in Rome who is accompanying a family member undergoing treatment in a hospital in Milan will no longer have to return to the capital just to vote.

Voting away from one’s place of residence applies to general elections, European elections and referendums, but not to local elections. The application must be submitted by 31 December each year and is valid for the elections held the following year. Anyone who becomes an overseas voter after that date may submit their application within 30 days of meeting the eligibility criteria and, in any event, no later than 45 days before the election.

Eligible voters are entered onto a register kept by the electoral office of their municipality of residence and are allocated to ordinary polling stations, usually on the basis of proximity: there will be no dedicated polling stations. The municipality of residence notes on the polling station register that the voter will be voting elsewhere, so as to prevent double voting. By the fifth day before the election, the municipality of residence issues, including electronically, a certificate stating the number and address of the polling station.