«Young people are asking for truly exercisable rights. The provision of the electoral law is a step forward but the procedure is too complex and there is the risk that the right to vote for non-residents will remain unapplied for the next elections”. This is supported by the mayor of Roccella, Vittorio Zito, in a letter to Crui (Conference of Rectors), Cnsu (National Council of University Students) and Anci (National Association of Italian Municipalities) in which he asks the Government and Parliament for a national campaign, simplified procedures and an extraordinary window for the first year. «The law – highlights Zito – has recognized a right that has been awaited for years, and it is certainly a step forward, but it has entrusted its concrete exercise to a cumbersome mechanism, which certainly needs to be simplified, and which risks making out-of-office voting unexercisable for hundreds of thousands of students and workers for the next political elections. For this reason, for the first year of application alone – he suggests – an extraordinary window should be considered to submit the application beyond December 31st and up to the 45th day before the voting date”.
In the experiment for students at the 2024 European elections, just under 24 thousand students submitted the application, compared to a potential audience of hundreds of thousands, and many, the associations later said, knew nothing about it. «Today – reiterates the mayor of Roccella – the audience is much broader: it also includes workers away from home, who some estimate at over two million, and those who are away from home for treatment or assistance.
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