Voting from abroad as an Italian citizen

An Italian citizen registered in the AIRE votes without returning to Italy, by post, through the consulate, in the elections of the Chamber of Deputies and of the Senate and in the national referendums. The vote is cast in the constituency abroad, created by the constitutional reform of 2000 and governed by Law 459 of 2001, which elects eight deputies and four senators in four divisions of the world, and the residents of the United Kingdom belong to the division of Europe. The right depends on one thing only, that the address in the AIRE be the one at which the citizen lives, because the ballot is sent there and nowhere else.

The postal vote

In the weeks before the election the consulate sends to the address in the AIRE the electoral kit, with the ballot papers, the instructions, an envelope for the ballot and a prepaid envelope for the return. The voter marks the ballot, seals it in the inner envelope, places it with the coupon of the electoral certificate in the outer one and posts it, and the envelope must reach the consulate by four in the afternoon of the Thursday before the day of the vote in Italy. Envelopes which arrive later are not counted. A voter who has not received the kit by the fourteenth day before the vote goes to the consulate in person to verify the position and to obtain a duplicate, and a citizen omitted from the electoral lists asks to be admitted to the postal vote with a request which reaches the consulate by the eleventh day before the vote, with the declaration of the comune of registration. Both remedies presuppose that the voter notices in time, which is why the kit which never arrives is almost always a kit sent to an old address.

The address is updated through the FAST IT portal, without charge, and the consulate records it in the AIRE of the comune. The duty falls on the citizen and not on the office, and since 2024 the comune fines a citizen who has not registered in the AIRE, from two hundred to one thousand euro for each year of omission up to five years. A citizen who moves within the district, to another district or to another country declares the move in the same way, and a citizen who returns to Italy declares it to the comune, which restores him to the ordinary electoral lists.

Voting in Italy instead

A citizen registered in the AIRE chooses, if he prefers, to vote in Italy, at the polling station of the comune of registration, by a written option delivered to the consulate by 31 December of the year before the year in which the legislature naturally ends, or, for early elections and for referendums, within the tenth day after the vote is called. The option is valid for one election and lapses afterwards. The present legislature began in October 2022 and ends in the autumn of 2027, so that the option for the next general election at its natural term is lodged by 31 December 2026. The citizen who votes in Italy receives no refund of the journey, only the reductions on travel within Italy which the law grants to voters.

The citizen temporarily abroad

A voter resident in Italy who is abroad for at least three months which include the date of the vote, for work, for study or for medical treatment, and the members of the family who live with him, vote by post from abroad under article 4-bis of the law. The option is sent not to the consulate but to the comune of electoral registration, by the thirty-second day before the vote in Italy, by post, by email or by hand, with a copy of the identity document, the full postal address abroad, the consulate which covers it and a declaration of the reason under the rules on substitute declarations. It is valid for one election only and is revoked, if need be, by the same date. The London consulate admits to the same procedure a citizen registered in the AIRE of another district who is temporarily in the United Kingdom.

Elections in which no vote is cast abroad

The vote by post is national. A citizen abroad has no vote in the elections of the regions, of the provinces and of the comuni and in local referendums, for which he returns to Italy or does not vote. For the European Parliament the consulates open polling stations only in the member States of the European Union, and a citizen resident in the United Kingdom, a third country since 2020, votes for the Italian seats at the comune of registration in Italy, which sends him a notice within twenty days of the decree calling the election.

The Comites and the CGIE

The Committee of Italians Abroad, the Comites, is elected in every consular district with more than three thousand citizens registered in the AIRE, for five years, by the citizens resident in the district for at least six months, with twelve members where the community does not exceed one hundred thousand and eighteen where it does. It represents the community before the consulate and the Italian authorities and is consulted on the services. The election is by post, and the kit is sent only to the citizens who have asked to be entered in the electoral list. In the United Kingdom the committees of London and Manchester were renewed in 2021 and are renewed again in 2026: the Consulate General in London has called the election for 4 December 2026, the last day on which the envelope with the ballot may reach it, for a committee of eighteen members, and the requests to be entered in the list are received until 4 November 2026 through the FAST IT portal, by email to the electoral office with the signed form and a copy of the identity document, by post or in person at the consulate. The General Council of Italians Abroad, the CGIE, is the advisory body of the Government and of Parliament on the matters of the Italians abroad, with sixty-three councillors of whom forty-three are elected by the members of the Comites throughout the world.

If you are not sure that your address in the AIRE is current, or you wish to opt for the vote in Italy or to be entered in the list for the Comites, send us your details. We tell you which declaration is due, to which office and by which date, and we prepare it with you.