On Sunday, people in the semi-autonomous region of Catalonia voted on whether to break away from Spain and form an independent state.
Despite the fact that 90% of those who made it to the polls voted yes to independence, the referendum was deemed illegal and Spain's civil guards were shown using excessive force to stop voters.
After numerous polling stations were closed by law enforcement, people began sharing stories on social media of how some stations remained open.
Sant Iscle de Vallalta. Han amagat les urnes i s'han posat a jugar al domino. Brutal.
"Sant Iscle de Vallalta. They have hidden the ballot boxes and have started playing dominoes. Brutal."
Twitter user @AbelColl shared photos and a video from a polling station in Maresme, in the municipality of Sant Iscle de Vallalta, where locals hid ballot boxes and played dominoes when the civil guard arrived.
Vídeo de la partida (Sonia Soto) Sense paraules.
The story went viral with over 15,000 retweets. People loved the ingenious thinking of those at the polling station.
The Spanish Army looking for poll boxes, intimidating with weapons. Our response: play domino. Our poll boxes were… https://t.co/5i9uyDVXuA
Goals https://t.co/IGhtEnlOPJ
Another Twitter user, who asked to be referred to as Karu, told BuzzFeed News about how people in her family's hometown near the Pyrenees pretended they were having a wedding at the polling station.
HAN VENIDO LOS MOSSOS AL PUEBLO DE MIS TÍOS PREGUNTANDO SI SE ESTABA VOTADO PK ES ILEGAL, Y TODOS HAN DICHO ‘ESTAMOS CELEBRANDO UNA BODA’
"The police came to my uncle's town to ask if they were participating in the illegal vote, and everybody said, 'We are celebrating a wedding.'"
"My family wanted to vote, but if the Spanish police saw them, they couldn't vote, because the polling station will be closed by the police," she said.
"So they made up that it was a wedding inside, and when the police came, people that were here said that. And the police didn’t close the school and didn’t borrow the ballot box."
Karu said that she didn't want to provide more detail, for fear of police punishing her family.
Karu's story prompted others to share similar stories of referendum day.
@_afurudashuuh En un colegio de mi pueblo van diciendo que están celebrando "La Festa de la Tardor" y tienen cartel… https://t.co/DDsipOmROH
"In a school in my town, they say they are celebrating 'La Festa de la Tardor' and they have posters hanging and everything hahahahah."
@_afurudashuuh @jonanperrea En mi pueblo están "haciendo" una exposición de cuadros de pintura que hicieron éste verano memeo
"My town is 'doing' an exhibition of paintings from the summer. Pissing myself."
In another village, people sang in a church to hide that they were counting votes.
El recompte clandestí més surrealista. Quines coses que hem de fer...
When some polling stations were raided by police, they gave them empty boxes, or ones full of fake votes.
"Hey Spanish Police, you took off boxes with empty envelopes. These were the real ones. :)" Somebody has to tell t… https://t.co/dM23yAH33t
Following Sunday's vote, people across Catalonia have been staging protests.
On Tuesday, the region went on general strike in opposition to the police violence displayed over the past few days.
Barricades up in Barcelona. Solidarity with the Catalan general strike! #VagaGeneral