Do you know what will happen to your vote on election day?
On election day, electors can vote in person at their polling station between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m.
At 8 p.m. the presiding officer of the polling station announces loudly that the voting is about to end and then:
They must allow electors who are inside or at the entrance to the polling place to vote.
They must place the voting envelopes sent by post in the ballot box.
They will vote themselves, along with the poll clerks and the polling agents registered to that polling station and will not allow anyone else to vote.
Counting the votes
Voting ends and the counting of votes begins.
The presiding officer opens the ballot box and takes out the envelopes one at a time.
They read out the candidate voted for. They show the ballot paper to voters, proxies and polling agents.
The number of votes obtained by each candidacy is counted and the president announces:
Number of registered electors.
Number of voters.
Number of null votes.
Number of blank votes.
Number of votes per candidate.
Possible protests and complaints are resolved.
All ballot papers are destroyed except those considered invalid and those that have been the subject of a complaint.
These ballot papers must be signed and included in the electoral documentation that the polling station must deliver to the court of first instance or justice of the peace.
The minutes of the ballot are drawn up and the following is done with them:
The original is displayed at the entrance to the polling place.
A copy is given to:
The administration representative.
Candidate representatives.
Proxies.
Polling agents.
The same applies to the counting of the votes in the senatorial elections, although instead of candidacies, the president reads out the names of the candidates marked with a cross.
The minutes of the meeting are drawn up and copies are distributed to the representatives of the candidacies, proxies and polling agents who request them.
Final destination of the documentation
Electoral documentation is distributed in three envelopes:
Envelope 1
Station’s original minutes of constitution. Original of the minutes of the session and the documentation to which they refer: electoral roll lists, numbered list of voters, invalid and protested ballot papers…
Envelopes 2 and 3
Copy of the station’s minutes of constitution. Copy of the minutes of the session.
Envelopes 1 and 2 must be handed in personally by the presiding officer, poll clerks and polling agents who wish to do so at the seat of the court of first instance or justice of the peace in whose district the polling station is located.
Security forces will accompany and, if necessary, facilitate their movement.
Within ten hours of receipt of the last documentation, the judge must go in person to the headquarters of the district election board, where they must hand over envelope 1.
Envelope 3 must be handed by a poll clerk of the polling station to the postal representative who will go to the polling station to collect it.
Once this envelope has been handed over, the duties of the poll clerk who had remained in the polling place for this purpose will come to an end.