Bummed

Spain has elections on March 9. Since at the moment I’m living in Belgium, that means I have to register at the Embassy-Consulate as (non) resident, and request my papers for voting via mail.

I fought a bit to find online the address of the Consulate, and then the opening hours and phone numbers. Once that was done, I found out I could ask for an appointment so I didn’t have to wait in queue for as long as it pleased them to do all the paperwork. Seeing as getting to the Consulate takes me 1.5 hours (connections allowing), and about one third of that is walking, I thought an appointment was a good idea.

So, I called this morning, only to find out all the appointments till February 7th were booked. February 7th is the last day you can register in order to request your voting papers timely. The option they gave me was being at the Consulate at 8am and wait in queue for as long as they want. See how long it takes me to get there? It means I have to get on nearly the first bus of the morning to get there on time. Not my cup of tea, really.

Actually, it shouldn’t have surprised me, seeing as their working hours are monday to friday, 8.30 till 13.30. They’re so kind as to pick up the phone up to 16.00, and be open on saturdays from 9 till 12. But you can’t solve any paperwork in the afternoon or saturdays. Because, you know, everybody is able to ask for full days off work to do this kind of paperwork, and of course live within walking distance.

I am not bitter, nope. I am not annoyed, not me, no sir. I am $&#@!&.

Edit: I was hoping I could solve the paperwork during the ten days I’ll be back in Spain for exams. However, that won’t work. I can ask to vote via mail no problem, it’s in the time frame, but the papers won’t be sent to my home address in Spain till after the 18th February, and I have to sign to get them. Guess what? I’m already out of the country by then.

This, apparently, means that even though I want to vote, it’ll be close to impossible. I can’t waste a full day going to the consulate to get registered and then ask for my voting documents, and I can’t ask for mail voting in Spain cause I won’t be there to recieve the papers.

Back to the drawing board. To see how on earth I can vote.