3.14pm – Sunday 9 June 2024
(The following text is taken entirely from the press note sent to the Opinion Agency) –
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As you know, finally this year non-residents from all over Italy will be able to vote thanks to Azione Universitaria. I attach the following to you.
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Giulia Clara Balestrieri
President AU Trento
VOTE OF
STUDENTS OUT
SITE
BY LUDOVICO NANETTI
INTRODUCTION
Article 48, II paragraph of the Constitution: “The vote is personal and equal, free and secret. His
exercise is civic duty.”
Article 48, IV paragraph of the Constitution: “The right to vote cannot be limited except by
civil incapacity or as a result of an irrevocable criminal sentence or in cases of moral unworthiness
indicated by law”.
This is what our Constitution says about the right to vote, yet for decades the various
governments that have followed one another at the helm of the nation have not deemed it necessary to concentrate the
own efforts to fully implement these articles with regard to the millions of citizens who
are located far from the municipality of residence, including around half a million university students.
Until now, executives had only been concerned with preparing “indirect solutions”
to facilitate the exercise of the right, in particular by providing discounts on the main ones
public means of transport aimed at facilitating the return to one’s habitual residence; measures
temporary and necessary, but insufficient to provide uniform regulation in one
long-term perspective.
In fact, in addition to the transport costs for the return, we must also consider the physical price
psychological that is imposed on citizens and in particular on students, forced to have to
face journeys of considerable duration and having to coordinate at the same time
social and work needs to the right and duty to go to one’s residence to express
the foundations of political rights and democracy.
Finally, there is no doubt that the technical and practical difficulties (think of the modification of
electoral lists, the preparation of special polling stations, the complication of carrying out elections
operations within the polling station, etc. etc.) that are placed on the path to reach
the objective, are numerous and complex, as they arise from the need to guarantee the
security, secrecy and freedom of voting.
Nonetheless, for Azione Universitaria and for the Meloni Government, it is an absolute priority
guarantee the right to vote for all non-resident students of Italian universities, and this is demonstrated by
Bill approved in July in the House and now being examined by the Senate which should
regulate once and for all the exercise of the right to vote in a municipality other than
the one of residence for the European elections and referendums. This act confers a delegation
to the executive to regulate the case in the 18 months following its approval, but
requires a long time to reach the best possible legislative result.
This is why on 12 February an amendment was presented by FdI parliamentarians to
Elections decree-law, which included the University Action line, already exposed in
hearing in the Senate Constitutional Affairs Committee, which aims to ensure the vote for the
students away from home for the European elections in June 2024.
THE DATA
The white paper “For citizen participation: how to reduce abstentionism and facilitate
vote”, published in April 2022 by the Department for Institutional Reforms of the
Presidency of the Council of Ministers, with data referring to the end of 2018, indicates approximately 591 thousand
students who are away from the province of residence for study reasons, of which approximately half are
residents in the South and Islands: this is in line with the trend of recent years which sees an emptying
of the universities of the South in favor of those of the North.
Another very relevant data concerns the percentage of abstentionism among young people,
probably also attributable to the distance from residence for study reasons.
According to data reported by Ipsos, abstentionism among young people aged 18-34 at
2022 political elections reached the record threshold of 42.7% and, according to the same data,
among students the percentage of those who have defected from voting reaches 35.5%.
A measure that aims to facilitate the return of non-residents during the vote are the
discounts applied by Trenitalia for all railway routes in the country. This initiative
it is certainly worth reading, but it is not enough to cover the waste of time and
of work and academic hardships caused by forced displacement.
THE LEGISLATIVE PATH
bills proposed by other parliamentarians at the end of the previous legislature (dll no. 787, ddl
211, bill 258, bill 302, bill 354 and bill 799). These bills actually amounted to a lot
different from the current text, which is modified in the commission of the current legislature,
becoming the current enabling bill for the Government.
→ the basic text of the bill was approved in the Constitutional Affairs commission for
give delegation to the government (April 2023)
→ amendment to the text was filed which aims to confer the delegation on the government for
regulate the case (May 2023)
→ the bill on non-resident voting is approved in the House, the text passes to the Senate
(July 2023)
→ Hearings (in the Constitutional Affairs Committee of the Senate) in relation to the examination of the bills
no. 787, bill 211, bill 258, bill 302, bill 354 and bill 799 (Exercise of the right to vote in a
municipality located in a region other than that of residence), approved by the Chamber of
deputies (8 February 2024)
→ amendment by FdI to the elections decree to allow non-resident voting (only for reasons of
study) at the European elections (12 February 2024)
The bill begins its process in the House in November 2022, at the instigation of the
oppositions including the Honorable Madia and Verducci (PD), but the text is modified
radically in commission, taking the current form of delegated law.
DDL 787, currently under examination by the 1st Constitutional Affairs Commission of the Senate,
provides that the Government, within 18 months of entry into force, prepares the methods for
guarantee the correct, free, secret and safe exercise of the right to vote for voters who, for
reasons for study, work, medical treatment or provision of assistance as a caregiver
family, are located in a municipality located in a region different from that of the municipality of
residence on the occasion of referendum and European consultations;”.
In particular, it is stated that for referendums, citizens who are in a municipality located
in a region other than that of residence for reasons of study, work, medical treatment, etc.
for at least 3 months, can vote in their temporary home. (in fact, the
referendum consultation, posing a single question for all voters without distinction
of a territorial basis, do not present great difficulties in guaranteeing the exercise also to
Offsite).
As regards the European elections, it is expected that citizens who find themselves in a
municipality located in a region other than that of residence for reasons of study, work,
medical treatment etc. for at least 3 months, have the opportunity to vote for lists and candidates
of the electoral district of residence at special sections, established for this purpose in each
regional capital.
Finally, the executive is asked to regulate a remodulation of the preferential tariff
applied by the bodies and companies that manage transport services for the benefit of voters
residents in Italy and abroad who must go to vote in their respective municipalities of registration
electoral.
https://www.senato.it/service/PDF/PDFServer/BGT/01381767.pdf
The FdI amendment to the elections decree-law on the occasion of the conversion into law of
decree-law of 29 January 2024, n.7, containing urgent provisions for consultations
elections for the year 2024 and regarding the revision of the registers of the resident population
and determination of the legal population (997), provides:
– non-resident voters who are temporarily domiciled for study reasons, for example
a period of at least three months in which the date of the aforementioned performance falls
electoral consultation, in an Italian municipality located in a region other than
the one in which the municipality in which they are registered is located, they can vote
with these methods
– When the municipality of temporary domicile belongs to the same district
election in which the municipality in whose lists they are registered falls, non-local voters
they can vote in the municipality of temporary domicile (in supernumerary).
– When the municipality of temporary domicile belongs to a district
electoral different from that in which the municipality in which they are registered falls
non-resident voters can vote in the capital municipality of the region in which it is located
located in the municipality of temporary domicile. The vote is cast for the lists and candidates
of the voter’s home constituency, at the special electoral sections
ad hoc established.
– Voters present, personally, through a delegated person or through
the use of electronic tools, specific application to the municipality in whose electoral lists
are registered. The application is submitted at least 35 days before the scheduled date
the carrying out of the consultation and is revocable, with the same forms provided by the
first period, by the twenty-fifth day before the same date.
NB this amendment has not yet been approved in the Senate
https://www.senato.it/japp/bgt/showdoc/frame.jsp?tipodoc=Emendc&leg=19&id=1408482
&idobject=1406038
THE UNIVERSITY ACTION POSITION
Azione Universitaria has always been interested in protecting the right to vote of non-residents and
It seems essential to us to find solutions to facilitate the exercise of this right
in view of the upcoming electoral events.
The amendment by FdI essentially reports the position that the representatives of AU
they presented at the hearing at the first Constitutional Affairs Commission; excerpt:“we believe
That:
– To those who are far from the municipality of residence, but still inside
of the same constituency, what has already been provided for could be applied by analogy
the list representatives.
The latter, in fact, can ask to be registered as a supernumerary on the lists
voters of a polling station other than the one of residence, thus being able to vote in
a different seat.
– For those who are far from the municipality of residence, but in a constituency
different from the one they should go to vote for, a
special polling station in the regional capital where non-residents can go to vote, in advance
specific request, for your constituency.
By applying the discipline of list representatives and therefore writing in supernumerary the
name of the non-resident in the electoral lists of a polling station other than that of residence, yes
it would also obviate the constitutionality problem that would emerge if the out of office
should also vote in the local elections of their country.
In fact, by applying the discipline already provided for list representatives, non-residents cannot
he would be removed from the electoral lists of his polling station and his name would remain registered
in such lists.In this world the non-resident would not be deprived of the (constitutional) right to
vote for the local elections of your country of residence.”
Furthermore, since our Government is on the path to reforming presidentialism,
we hope that they will also want to legislate on the electoral law and on non-resident voting
for policies.
Finally, it goes without saying that, until a definitive solution is reached, they must
remain in force and indeed, must be further implemented, all measures
economic discounts on travel tickets, which allow non-resident students to
return to their home region to vote.
