Spain's INE adds new data field to distinguish overseas voters under memory law

After nearly four years of ambiguous growth in the overseas voter register, the Supreme Court mandated the INE to differentiate registrations based on proof of exile. The agency responded by adding a single column, VNA, to the CERA file, raising its size to 632 entries. Value 1 will mark voters who have a consular record confirming that a parent, grandparent or great-grandparent was exiled, while value 2 will denote registrations without that documentation; all other cases receive a 0.

Elena Manzanera, president of the INE and director of the Oficina del Censo Electoral, issued the technical instructions on 18 September, preserving the existing file structure. The change also requires consulates to resend past registrations with the new classification and to provide scanned exile certificates where applicable. Four members of the Junta Electoral Central had previously argued that the earlier Sofia Puente instruction exceeded the 2022 memory law by presuming exile, a point the Supreme Court rulings now address. The JEC will later decide how voters’ municipal assignments are determined.