How to vote
What you need in order to vote, what the ballot paper looks like, how to mark it, and what to do if you cannot get to a polling station. Only what concerns you on the day.
What do you need in order to vote?
A valid identity document and your electoral card (tessera elettorale).
The electoral card is issued free of charge by your comune — the municipality you are resident in. If you have lost it, or all the stamp spaces are used up, the comune will issue a duplicate — including on polling day itself, when the offices stay open throughout voting hours.
Where you vote, comune by comune →
Source: d.P.R. 361/1957
When does voting take place?
Voting takes place on a Sunday, from 7am to 11pm.
The 2027 election will be held on Sunday 19 December 2027 at the latest: art. 61 of the Constitution requires the vote within seventy days of the end of the legislature, and this legislature expires on 13 October 2027. The exact date is fixed by the convening decree, which has to come at least forty-five days before polling day.
Counting for the Chamber begins as soon as polls close, with the Senate following.
Source: Art. 1, d.P.R. 361/1957
Who can vote?
Every Italian citizen aged 18 or over, for both chambers.
Until 2021 the Senate required voters to be 25; constitutional law 1/2021 lowered it to 18, so since 2022 anyone of 18 votes for both chambers.
Source: Constitutional law 1/2021
What does the ballot paper look like?
You receive two ballots, one for the Chamber and one for the Senate. On each, the name of the single-member district candidate is printed above the symbols of the lists backing them.
Beside each symbol is that list’s slate of multi-member candidates, in a fixed order that voters cannot change: there are no preference votes.
How the districts are drawn, and which one you vote in →
Source: Law 165/2017
What is on the ballot, and what a mark does
The first name and surname of the single-member candidate are printed inside a rectangle. They are the only person you vote for by name.
Source: Art. 31, d.P.R. 361/1957
Beneath that rectangle, in rectangles of their own, are the symbols of the lists linked to that candidate. Where those lists stand in coalition, their rectangles and the candidate’s sit inside one larger rectangle — the block. The symbols are reproduced three centimetres across.
Beside each symbol, in the same rectangle, are that list’s candidates for the multi-member district, in the order the list put them forward. That order cannot be changed: there is no preference vote.
A mark on the rectangle holding a symbol counts for that list and, at the same time, for the single-member candidate it is linked to. This is the ordinary way to vote, and it is one mark.
Source: Art. 58, d.P.R. 361/1957
A mark made only on the rectangle holding the candidate’s name counts for the candidate, and is shared among the lists backing them in proportion to the votes each won in that district.
Marking the candidate’s name and also the symbol of a list that does back them is valid, and counts as one vote: it achieves nothing, but it does not void the ballot. What voids a ballot is not the second mark — it is where the second mark goes.
A mark on one candidate’s name and another on the symbol of a list that does not back them makes the ballot void. This is the split vote — allowed in many Italian regional elections, forbidden in a general election — and it is the commonest mistake.
Source — all the sources this site uses: Italian Interior Ministry — DAIT, Publication no. 3, general elections 2022 edition, plates at pp. 161-162 (dait.interno.gov.it) — opens in a new tab
How the sheet is built, and who settles it
The ballot is divided into two vertical columns. In each column there are 5 horizontal rows of symbols if there are no more than 15 lists, 6 if there are 16 to 20, 7 if there are more than 20 — and where that is not enough, the sheet is widened with further vertical columns. This is the only part of the model that is text, and the only part that is a rule rather than an example: this drawing applies it rather than tracing the facsimile.
Each block carries a strip across the top with the single-member candidate’s name and, beneath it, the symbols of the lists linked to that candidate, each with that list’s multi-member candidates beside it. The symbols linked to one candidate must sit in contiguous rectangles, which is why a block cannot be split across two columns.
That is where the differing heights come from. A candidate backed by one list takes one row, one backed by three takes two, one backed by six takes three: symbols go two abreast and a rectangle is not divisible. The order the blocks appear in on the sheet is not part of the model — it is drawn by lot.
Source: Art. 24, d.P.R. 361/1957
How do you mark the ballot?
One cross on the symbol of your preferred list is enough: it counts for both the list and the single-member candidate that list supports.
Alternatively you can mark only the candidate’s name, in which case the vote goes to the candidate and is shared among the lists backing them, in proportion to the votes each received.
Source: Law 165/2017
Can you split your vote?
No. Split voting is not allowed.
Marking a single-member candidate and a list that does not support them makes the ballot void. It is the most common mistake, because many Italian regional elections do allow split voting.
Source: Law 165/2017
How do you vote from abroad?
Italians living abroad and registered with AIRE vote by post, without returning to Italy: the consulate posts the ballot pack to your registered address no later than the eighteenth day before polling day.
If you would rather vote in Italy, you have to tell your consulate in writing by 31 December 2026. It is the only date in the electoral calendar that is already fixed, and after it the pack goes out regardless: you vote by post, on the Overseas ballots. If parliament is dissolved early the deadline is instead the tenth day after the election is called.
The Overseas constituency elects its own representatives — 8 deputies and 4 senators — and the option covers one election only: it has to be exercised again each time.
What if you are away from home on polling day?
You have to return to your comune of residence to vote: there is no general provision for voting away from home.
General elections have no postal vote for people temporarily in another Italian city. Discounted travel for voters returning home is announced election by election.
The exceptions are the armed forces, the police and the fire service, who vote in the comune where they are stationed, and polling staff, who vote at the station where they are serving.
What if you cannot get to the polling station?
You vote where you are: at home, in hospital or in prison — or at a different polling station in your comune if your own is not wheelchair-accessible.
Voting at home is for electors who cannot leave the house because of a very serious infirmity or because they depend vitally on electro-medical equipment, and it has to be requested from the comune between the fortieth and the twentieth day before polling day, with a certificate from the local health authority no more than forty-five days old. This is the deadline people miss.
Hospital patients and detainees declare it to their comune by the third day before the vote. Blind electors, electors whose hands have been amputated and those with paralysis or an impediment of comparable seriousness go into the booth with a companion of their own choosing.
Voting at home, with a companion, in hospital or in prison →
Source: Art. 1, d.l. 1/2006, and art. 51, 55, d.P.R. 361/1957
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