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Article snippet: BARCELONA — Catalans lined up before sunrise on Sunday, massing on rain-slicked streets in towns and cities across the northeastern region, to vote in a banned referendum on independence, even as Spanish security forces entered dozens of sites and attempted to confiscate ballot boxes. The turnout by thousands, young and old, was an extraordinary show of determination in the face of a steady drumbeat of threats from the government in Madrid, which considers the referendum unconstitutional and had ordered the police to seal public facilities to prevent voting. Officers from the Catalan police force, known as Mossos, watched voters stream in but made no move to interfere with them. Then, shortly after polls opened at 9 a.m., Spanish national forces in riot gear entered several sites, including the high school in northeastern Catalonia where the region’s leader, Carles Puigdemont, was expected to vote. The Spanish police and Catalan civilians trying to vote scuffled in several places. It was unclear how far the police clampdown would stretch. Jordi Turull, a spokesman for Catalonia’s regional government, told a news briefing that 73 percent of more than 2,000 polling stations remained open, despite the usage of “state violence that reminds us of the Franco era.” Enric Millo, Madrid’s representative in Catalonia, said federal forces were forced to confiscate ballot boxes after the Catalan police had failed to stop the voting. “We’re being forced to do what we didn’t w... Link to the full article to read more