Home » The right to vote denied to the most vulnerable – Luigi Mastrodonato

The right to vote denied to the most vulnerable – Luigi Mastrodonato

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The right to vote denied to the most vulnerable – Luigi Mastrodonato

On 25 September, the Italians who will go to vote will probably be far fewer than in the past. Abstention is at record levels at this historic moment and for millions of people not voting is a conscious choice: with 35 percent according to the latest polls, the party of abstainers will be the winner of the elections. For many other people, however, giving up the vote will not be a political gesture, but an obligatory choice due to personal and social problems that the state does not take charge of.

The problem is known for out of office. If those who are abroad can count on the postal voting system, for those who live in Italy there is no law that gives the possibility to vote where they live for work or study without having to return to the municipality of residence. The result is that about 10 percent of the electorate (nearly 5 million people) is forced to face substantial travel and expenses to exercise their right to vote.

However, the off-premises are not the only ones to find themselves in this situation. There are fragile categories that would be allowed by law to vote, but who are often not given the means to do so. Prisoners, people with intellectual disabilities and the homeless are among them.

People who are serving a sentence of more than five years in prison or between three and five years including a ban from public office cannot vote. For all other inmates, the vote, which usually takes place in a special seat in prison, is guaranteed. But only on paper.

In fact, in order to vote, inmates must move well in advance, contact the prison matriculation office and go to the director of the institution where they are located. Within three days of the vote, the institution must send the mayor of the municipality where the prisoner resides a certificate attesting to his stay in prison, so that he can be included in the electoral roll. But if the detainee is imprisoned in a municipality other than that of residence, the mayor must notify the first citizen of the municipality of imprisonment so that he can insert it in his electoral lists.

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“To get to the vote, a prisoner has to go through three public administrations: the prison administration, the municipality of residence and the municipality where the prisoner is located. A lack or a delay in one of these three stages can hinder the exercise of his right ”, underlines Stefano Anastasia, coordinator of the regional guarantors of the rights of prisoners. “Furthermore, there is little information in prisons about voting, we don’t know why but we don’t want to let politics into the cell. This creates disillusionment and disinterest in the prisoners ”.

The few data available on recent electoral participation in Italian prisons speak for themselves. In the 2013 political elections, 3,426 voting prisoners were out of 30,000 eligible. A turnout of 11 percent that plummeted further in the following year’s European elections. On that occasion, 1,236 prisoners went to vote out of the approximately 24 thousand entitled to vote, a paltry 5.5 percent.

“Everything would be simplified by greater computerization of communications between administrations. It is an ancient problem of the prison administration, ”explains Anastasia. In France, with the switch to a digitized postal voting system, turnout in prisons has increased from 2 percent to 15 percent. Some Italian prisons are more sensitive to the issue and try to facilitate the procedure, such as the Regina Coeli institute in Rome. This is confirmed by the administrative data of 2021, where the Roman prison recorded one of the highest turnout rates in Italy (however, only 21 inmates voted).

Last spring, on the occasion of the vote for the administrative and referendums, it launched an awareness campaign on the right to vote in prisons, circulating leaflets with all practical information among the inmates. Thus Sergio Dall’Osto, a 92-year-old man with many years in prison for robbery, banned for life from public offices and then pardoned in 2021, was able to vote for the first time. A story that has opened a debate on how democratic a rule is that limits a right such as that of voting according to the penalty.

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In the elections last spring, Paolo, a boy with Down syndrome, rolled up his sleeves to get prepared. With the support of Anffas Onlus, the National Association of Families of People with Intellectual and / or Relational Disabilities, a course of study of the various electoral programs began in the weeks before the vote.

Anffas has been involved for years in services such as translating party proposals into a more usable language (easy to read, easy to read) or represent in a simplified form the consequences of those proposed to promote the understanding of people with intellectual disabilities. It also organizes voting simulations, so that the assisted can become more familiar with how to behave at the polls. But there is always the possibility that something will go wrong.

After having marked the cross on the ballot paper, Paolo was unable to fold it to insert it into the ballot box. He presented it open to the president of the section, who could not help but cancel it. “The Italian legislation is still in 1957. Only those who have a physical or visual disability can have a companion. People with intellectual disabilities are therefore left alone in the cabin, before and after the vote ”, explains Gianfranco De Robertis, legal advisor to Anffas. “Paolo’s is not an isolated case, there are many testimonies of this type. The state must have the courage to take matters into its own hands and to identify which interventions are feasible and the limits to be respected ”.

One solution could be to allow parents or third parties to physically accompany the person with intellectual disability in the vote, that is, up to the booth. Another is to equip the polling stations with ballot papers that are easier to read (easy to read), as people with disabilities often have difficulty deciphering them, and this is one of the reasons why their vote ends up being canceled.

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Anffas has long been asking that the law be changed. On the occasion of the elections of 25 September, the association denounced the absence of precautions for people with intellectual disabilities in the Faq of the Ministry of the Interior on the vote. “We must overcome the great barrier that exists for these people regarding their sacrosanct right to make their voices heard”, reiterates De Robertis.

Among those who will have a hard time voting on 25 September there are also homeless people. To exercise their civil rights, such as voting rights, citizens must be registered with a domicile and this, for a homeless person, is a problem. The solution would be: the fictitious way. As Istat already wished in 1992, Italian municipalities should establish territorially non-existent streets where those who do not have a home can indicate her domicile. However, this practice is not widespread.

“In fact, the big cities comply with the practice even if in many cases difficulties arise due to the lack of preparation of the registry offices and sometimes to the obstruction of the institutions”, explains the fio.PSD, a non-profit organization committed to guaranteeing support for the homeless. “Without a registration in the registry office, the person is not registered in the electoral registers, cannot vote and therefore feels even more invisible”.

Today according to the fio.PSD there are 237 fictitious routes in as many municipalities, a number very far from the total of almost eight thousand Italian municipalities. The 250 territorial areas that presented 483 projects to obtain economic resources linked to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Pnrr) also had to indicate the number of fictitious residences in the request. An important detail, but unfortunately for homeless people today, exercising the right to vote is still a mirage.

“The municipalities should undertake to register the poorest citizens in the fictitious streets, to inform them and to enable them to make their political choice”, underlines the fio.PSD. “It is only through open and inclusive processes that it is possible to offer people an opportunity”.

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