The tallying of the votes is known as the count. In an electoral process the votes are counted at two different points in time.
The provisional count is the tally of votes that takes place at the polling station at the end of the voting, the result of which is made public by the Presiding Officer once the count has been completed.
The final count is performed by the Electoral Boards on the fifth day after the day of the voting and must be completed no later than the eighth day after the day of the election.
Once the voting is over, the counting of the votes begins at the polling stations.
The counting of the votes in these elections will take place in the following order:
The votes in each election are counted as follows:
The President removes the envelopes from the ballot box one by one and reads out the name of the candidature. He/she shows each ballot paper, once it has been read out, to the auditors and proxies.
At the end of the count, any potential doubts and/or protests will be resolved by a majority vote. The President will then announce the result aloud, specifying the number of voters on the electoral roll, the number of census certificates provided, the number of voters, the number of null votes, the number of abstentions and the number of votes cast for each candidacy.
The polling station publishes the results in the form of a count record, a copy of which will be given to the representatives of each candidature, the auditors, the proxies, the candidates who request one, and the representative of the Administration.
The results are known so quickly because there is a complex and advanced procedure in place for transmitting the information.
At each polling station there is a representative of the Administration who, once the counting of the votes has been completed, receives a copy of the count record from the Presiding Officer with the results from that polling station and sends them to the data aggregation centre at the Ministry of the Interior.
Before proceeding to the definitive count, the competent Electoral Board is constituted as a polling station to count the votes of absent residents. At eight o’clock in the morning, with the auditors designated by the concurrent candidatures, the Chairman places the envelopes with the absent residents’ votes received until the same day in the ballot box and the Secretary writes down the names of the voters on the list. The Board then counts the votes and incorporates the results into the final tally.
The general or definitive count (art. 103 et seq. LOREG) is carried out on the fifth day following that of the voting by the corresponding Electoral Board. It is a single event which is public in nature.
The Chairman draws up the minutes of the constitution of the Board and signs them together with the members, the Secretary and the duly accredited representatives and proxies of the candidatures.
The counting of the votes begins with the Secretary reading out the legal provisions. The envelopes (envelope number 1 with the electoral documentation corresponding to each polling station) which are delivered to the Courts on the day of the elections are then opened.
The Secretary announces the summaries of the voting at each polling station. During the counting of the votes, the Board cannot nullify any minutes or votes and can only verify the count and the total votes at the corresponding polling stations in accordance with the minutes or copies of the minutes from the polling stations. If there are any material, factual or arithmetical errors, they will be rectified.
The counting of the votes will not be interrupted and it will be completed no later than the eighth day after the elections.