Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Instructions for seat components

Milan, February 7 2023 – On the occasion of the regional elections of 12 and 13 February, the Municipality of Milan carried out three videos to support polling station presidents, scrutineers and scrutineers in welcoming electors and voters to the polls in an inclusive manner.

In fact, it is the duty of those dedicated to polling operations to ensure that each person, regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion or origin, is allowed to exercise this right in complete serenity.

Il first of these videos, created with the collaboration of CIG Arcigay Milano, contains an indication to the polling station presidents to distribute the voters and electors in a single row on election day, rather than dividing them into rows differentiated on the basis of female and male genders .

The electoral registers, by law, are divided on the basis of gender and in most cases it happens that presidents follow this criterion to manage the flow of people who go to vote.

This is a practice that has been in use for decades but which has been contested for several years because it is discriminatory and harmful towards transgender and non-binary people. Lining up based on the gender assigned at birth forces, in cases where it does not correspond to one's gender identity or expression, forced coming outs which can result in situations of embarrassment or disgust, due to which many people are led to choose to give up voting.

For this reason, the municipal administration has chosen to raise the awareness of those who preside over the polling station so that, aware of the impact of the division into men and women, they do not divide the voters into two rows, keep the registers close together and proceed with the identification of people only when your turn comes, opting for a non-discriminating method that is more respectful of everyone's gender identity. An initiative in line with the motion "Measures aimed at promoting the inclusion and citizenship of transgender people", approved by the City Council in May last year.