Editing Politics of Spain (section)

==Electoral process==
Suffrage is free and secret to all Spanish citizens of age 18 and older to all elections, and to residents who are citizens of all [[European Union]] countries only in local municipal elections and elections to the [[European Parliament]].

===Congress of Deputies===
[[File:Personas por diputado en España.svg|thumb|right|Relation between the number of people represented by each deputy in each province and the national average (June 2016 elections).|300px]]
Elections to the Cortes Generales are held every four years or before if the prime minister calls for an early election. Members of the Congress of Deputies are elected through [[proportional representation]] with closed party lists where provinces serve as electoral districts; that is, a list of deputies is selected from a province-wide list.{{sfn|Encyclopædia Britannica}} Under the current system, sparsely populated provinces are overrepresented because more seats of representatives are allocated to the sparsely populated provinces than they would have if number of seats are allocated strictly according to the population proportion.{{sfn|Encyclopædia Britannica}}{{sfn|Colomer|2004}}

Not only provinces with small population are over-represented in Spain's election system, the system also tends to favors major [[political parties]].<ref name="Álvarez-Rivera">{{cite web|last=Álvarez-Rivera|first=Manuel|title=Elections to the Spanish Congress of Deputies|url=http://electionresources.org/es/index_en.html|access-date=2 May 2012}}</ref> Despite the use of [[proportional representation]] voting system, which in general encourages the development of a larger number of small political parties rather than a few larger ones, Spain has effectively a [[two-party system]] in which smaller and regional parties tend to be underrepresented.{{sfn|Encyclopædia Britannica}}<ref name=verdades>{{cite news|url=http://www.publico.es/30838/las-verdades-y-mentiras-de-la-ley-electoral|title=Las verdades y mentiras de la ley electoral|last=González|first=Yolanda|newspaper=[[El País]]|date=23 December 2007|access-date=19 February 2012}}</ref> This is owing to various reasons:

* Due to the great disparity in population among provinces, even though smaller provinces are overrepresented, the total number of deputies assigned to them is still small and tends to go to one or two major parties, even if other smaller parties managed to obtain more than 3% of the votes – the minimum threshold for representation in the Congress.<ref name=verdades/>
* The average district magnitude (the average number of seats per constituency) is one of the lowest in Europe, owing to the large number of constituencies.<ref name=baldini>{{cite book|last=Baldini|first=Gianfranco|title=Elections, Electoral Systems and Volatile Voters|year=2011|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=New York|isbn=978-0-230-57448-9|pages=67|author2=Pappalardo, Adriano}}</ref> The low district magnitude tends to increase the number of wasted votes (the votes that could not affect the election results because they have been cast for the small parties which could not pass the effective threshold), and in turn increase the disproportionality (so the number of seats and the portion of votes got by a party becomes less proportional).<ref name="District Magnitude">{{cite book|last=Farrell|first=David|title=Electoral Systems: A Comparative Introduction|year=2011|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=New York|isbn=978-1-4039-1231-2|pages=74–77|edition=2}}</ref> It is often regarded as the most important factor that limits the number of parties in Spain.<ref name="Álvarez-Rivera"/><ref name="Spanish_electoral_system">{{cite book |last=Baldini |first=Gianfranco |title=Elections, Electoral Systems and Volatile Voters|year=2011|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=New York|isbn=978-0-230-57448-9|pages=67–69 |author2=Pappalardo, Adriano}}</ref><ref name="Electoral Engineering">{{cite book|last=Norris|first=Pippa|title=Electoral Engineering - Voting Rules and Political Behavior|year=2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=USA|isbn=978-0-521-82977-9|pages=87}}</ref> This point is advanced when Baldini and Pappalardo compare it with the case of [[Netherlands]], where the parliament is elected using proportional representation in a single national constituency. There, the parliament is much more fragmented and the number of parties is much higher than in Spain.<ref name=Spanish_electoral_system/>
* The [[D'Hondt method]] (a type of [[highest average method]]) is used to allocate the seats, which slightly favors the major parties when compared to [[Sainte-Laguë method]] (another type of highest average method) or the normal kinds of [[largest remainder method]]s.<ref name="Election formula">{{cite book|last=Farrell|first=David|title=Electoral Systems: A Comparative Introduction |year=2011 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=New York|isbn=978-1-4039-1231-2|pages=67–74|edition=2}}</ref><ref name="PR system">{{cite book |last=Baldini|first=Gianfranco|title=Elections, Electoral Systems and Volatile Voters|year=2011|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=New York|isbn=978-0-230-57448-9|pages=61–64 |author2=Adriano Pappalardo}}</ref> It is suggested that the use of D'Hondt method also contribute to a certain degree, though not as large as the low number of seats per constituency, to the bipolarization of the party system.<ref name="Álvarez-Rivera"/><ref name=Spanish_electoral_system/>
* The 3% threshold for entering the Congress is ineffective in many provinces, where the number of seats per constituency is so low that the actual threshold to enter the Congress is effectively higher, and thus many parties cannot obtain representation in Congress despite having obtained more than the 3% threshold in the constituency.<ref name="Álvarez-Rivera"/> For example, the actual threshold for the constituencies having 3 seats is 25%, much higher than 3%, making the 3% threshold irrelevant.<ref name=verdades/><ref name=Spanish_electoral_system/> However, in the largest constituencies like [[Madrid]] and [[Barcelona]], where the number of seats is much higher, the 3% threshold is still effective to eliminate the smallest parties.<ref name="Álvarez-Rivera"/>
* The size of the Congress (350 members) is relatively small.{{sfn|Colomer|2004}} It is suggested by [[Lijphart]] that the small size of parliament may encourage disproportionality and so favor the large parties.<ref>{{cite book|last=Farrell|first=David|title=Electoral Systems: A Comparative Introduction|year=2011|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=New York|isbn=978-1-4039-1231-2|pages=154|edition=2}}</ref>

===Senate===
In the Senate, each province, with the exception of the islands, select four senators using [[Plurality-at-large voting#Variations of block voting|block voting]]: voters cast ballots for three candidates, and the four senators with the greatest number of votes are selected. The number of senators selected for the islands varies, depending on their size, from 1 to 3 senators. A similar procedure of block voting is used to select the three senators from the three major islands whereas the senators of the smaller islands or group of islands, are elected by plurality. In addition, the legislative assembly of each autonomous community designates one senator, and another for each additional one million inhabitants.

===Electoral participation===
Although voting is not compulsory, [[voter turnout]] has traditionally been high, peaking just after democracy was restored in the late 1970s, falling during the 1980s, but trending upwards in the 1990s.{{sfn|Encyclopædia Britannica}} Since then, voting abstention rate has been around one-fifth to nearly one-third of the electorate.{{sfn|Encyclopædia Britannica}}