![The scrutineer is a job that Italians no longer want to do The scrutineer is a job that Italians no longer want to do](https://media.famigliacristiana.it/2024/6/elezioni_europee_2024_3427505.jpg)
Italy risks becoming a Republic founded on the desertion of polling stations. Not only to go and vote but also to allow others to vote.
At a certain point during the election night, the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi he arrived in the press room of the Interior Ministry and breathed a huge sigh of relief: “It went well,” he said. Fraud controversies? No. Disputed votes? Not even. Slow operations? Not even.
The undertaking, bordering on the impossible, was to recruit presidents and scrutineers to regularly open the 61,556 ordinary polling stations (then there are special ones such as, for example, universities where many non-resident students voted) and allow Italians to vote.
«We had some very important defections», said Piantedosi, «in cities like Milan, 47% of the polling station presidents had to be replaced, therefore 600 out of 1,256, and 50% of the scrutineers, 38% in Rome for a thousand resignations of polling station presidents, 26.5% in Naples. And so on. A very important fact, which we will have to reflect on.”
Well, now it’s official: Among the jobs that Italians no longer want to do is that of scrutineer.
Episodes like this are not new, they also happened in previous years, and were partly physiological with the last minute unexpected event which, perhaps, forced you to not be able to carry out the task. Not this year, it was different. From 30% of refusals in recent years it has risen to 50 with even higher peaks in some large cities. There is no difference between North and South. Also due to the unprecedented electoral Saturday and the closed schools, which perhaps led to planning the first holidays away from home to the sea or in the mountains.
In short, ensuring the smooth running of electoral operations has become a task, to be guaranteed with means bordering on desperation, including appeals on social media and the recruitment of passers-by: “Whoever can, come to the polls.” And not to vote but to open the polling station and ensure the right to vote, guaranteed by the Constitution, and an essential basis of democracy.
In Palermo desertion was very high: the Municipality was expecting 2,400 scrutineers, but just 900 showed up, less than half. «In my polling station», explained a scrutineer, «out of 4 expected, all four were missing. We had to go out on the streets to try to find someone who was willing to replace them.” Similar scenes were seen almost everywhere. Not only in Milan (a city where constituting seats has always been complicated) but also in Bari, Genoa, Cagliari.
Almost surreal what happened to Qualiano (Naples) where a 24-year-old woman, scrutineer, was reported by the police for abandoning the polling station without legitimate reason. The girl left her place on Saturday evening. She never returned and initially gave vague justifications. The real reason? “The pay is too low,” she later admitted.
Compensation, it must be said clearly, is one of the problems underlying desertion. Between preliminary operations before the opening to set up the polling station, voting operations and final counting, the commitment is over 30 hours between Saturday and Sunday only. The Interior Ministry, given the rapid renunciations of recent years, with circular 34/24 of a few months ago tried to move forward by raising (a little) the compensation which for this electoral round was 110.40 euros for scrutineers and secretaries and 138 euros for polling station presidents. More or less, they make just under 4 euros an hour. More than minimum wage.
A fact, moreover, which makes Italy bring up the rear for payments. Not far away is Spain: where the scrutineers get a daily allowance of 70 euros per day, therefore a total of 140 euros. The pay is even lower for the special polling stations where the scrutineers earn 56.35 euros and the presidents 82.80. And the compensation is paid four months after the elections, very slowly.
Is it just money? No. It is also a social and cultural issue. Once upon a time, being president of the polling station (for which you must have at least a diploma) or scrutineer was a source of pride. In the moderate electorate, the notables and the middle class carried out this task with pleasure and it was also a source of social prestige. And the politicized and educated militants, especially on the left but not only, they considered it a merit to officiate at the “rite” par excellence of democracy. Today this is no longer the case also because politics, as demonstrated by the free-falling turnout in recent years, no longer attracts and mobilizes as in the past.
Afterwards, for many years, it was convenient to participate. Especially in multiple referendum rounds, it has also been quite profitable because the scrutineers are paid based on the number of ballots cast in the vote: the more there is, the more you earn. There have been referendums with seven ballot papers to vote (and very low turnout) or election day. Now no one wants to do the assignment. With salaries at a standstill – while prices rise – even the remuneration of scrutineers has become very little. And therefore instead of going to the polls, Italians prefer to go to the seaside.
A few years ago, in 2006, to the figure of Non-voting scrutineer – the two emergencies of this round for the European Championships – the singer-songwriter Samuele Bersani he even dedicated a rather contemptuous and ironic song to describe those who never take sides so as not to get their hands dirty, but still never miss the opportunity to comment or act trivially. The character was inspired by the “inconsistency” of a real friend of the Cattolica singer, who, Bersani explained, “was a scrutineer but hasn’t voted for ten years”.
The non-voting scrutineer, the text states, «he is indifferent to politics / He is very keen to say, “Ohissa!” / But then he doesn’t get out of the car / He’s like a practicing atheist / Sitting in church on Sunday / He purposely stands a little aside / To disagree with the sermon.”
Today the song should be updated because no one goes to the polls anymore either to vote or to work.