A major bottleneck could be in the making for the delivery of the Dominican Republic’s new identification cards. In line with the classic cultural habit of leaving things until the very last minute, citizen demand for the new Cédula de Identidad y Electoral, which will be required to vote in the 2028 elections, has fallen significantly short of the Central Electoral Board (JCE) schedule, El Dia reports.
To date, the renewal rate is averaging roughly 500,000 ID cards per month, following the JCE’s last progress report in July indicating that two million cards were issued after four months of work. Maintaining this current pace poses a massive challenge to replacing the estimated 9.4 million documents within the set deadline. To hit the target over a 12-month period, the JCE must increase its output to an average of nearly 783,000 card deliveries per month, a required jump of about 283,000 additional renewals each month compared to current numbers.
JCE schedule adjustments
To address the low turnout, the JCE Plenary has restructured operations, eliminating continuous 24-hour service centers in favor of extended-hour centers and mobile outreach units in local communities:
- Weekend and holiday flexibility: On Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, citizens can renew their IDs at designated national centers regardless of their birth month, lifting the restriction previously used to stagger applicant flow.
- Seniors (70+): Individuals aged 70 and older are completely exempt from birth-month restrictions and may renew at any time during operating hours.
- Reduced hours in smaller municipalities: In 87 municipalities with up to 20,000 registered voters, operating hours were reduced to Monday–Friday from 8am to 4pm, and Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays from 8am to 2pm.
- Standard municipalities: In 38 other municipalities, weekday appointments still follow the birth-month scheme (covering birth months from January up to the current month), while weekend and holiday access remains unrestricted.
- Extended-hour centers: Formerly continuous centers now run from 8am to 12am (midnight). Open walk-ins regardless of birth month are permitted at these locations between 9pm and midnight.
Community Mobile Units
The JCE has also launched temporary mobile units to bring registration directly to rural and local neighborhoods, eliminating the need for residents to travel to permanent offices. The scheduled mobile drives include:
- Juan López (Moca): 17 to 28 August
- Cumayasa (Villa Hermosa, La Romana): 17 to 30 August
- El Ciruelillo (San Francisco de Macorís, Duarte): 20 to 26 August 20 to August 26
- Las Barias (Azua) and Sabaneta (San Juan de la Maguana): 23 to 25 August
- Villa Elisa (Guayubín, Montecristi): 24 to 27 August
- San Francisco de Jacagua (Santiago de los Caballeros): 25 to 30 August
- UASD Barahona Campus: 25 August to 8 September
- Pantoja (Los Alcarrizos, Santo Domingo): 26 to 30 August
Read more in Spanish:
El Dia
26 August 2026