Catalan officials instead relied on privately printed ballots, and changed the voting rules an hour before polls were scheduled to open, to allow voters to cast a ballot at any poll station, without using an envelope and whether registered there or not.
But the referendum is a joke. Both the way it was called, and how it has been conducted.
Furthermore, the result is impossible to believe given previous results in open elections.
A sad day for Spain and Catalonia.
A natural or man-made disaster during a vote filters out the less "passionate" portion of the electorate; if you don't care that much about an election's outcome, a thunderstorm or the threat of riot police cracking open your skull would probably convince you to stay home rather than visit your polling place.
I would imagine the bulk of the "passion" on this topic would reside with the separatists, so it stands to reason the police action ironically resulted in suppressing the "remain" vote.
It was a stupid approach from a very weak government.
All we have is 40% turnout with 90% yes. We will have to do with that.
Nevertheless, turnout has been quite high.
And yes, police has been sent.
"Just about moving borders" makes it sound as if that were a trivial change. It would be huge for Spain.
#11: do you think then that the "referendum" was properly organised, with enough accountability and transparency, and no meddling? Do you trust the results announced by the Catalan government?
Sending in the riot police to enforce the ban made the Spanish government look weak and fearful.
In all actuality, they could have just said "Sure, vote. The results won't be legal."
Without the crackdown, the vote could have been monitored by independent organisations, like it happens in modern democracy.