The first thing that must be specified in connection with the counting of votes and the delivery of the records to the winning candidates is that the Mexican electoral law is extremely detailed. In it, the activities that in each instance (polling station or district) must be performed are defined step by step, as it will be seen next. The level of detail can be explained because of the electoral history of the country and with the purpose of giving more certainty to the electors about the results and the transparency of the electoral battle. Thus, in each one of the four elections celebrated in the Federal District (Head of Government, heads of the boroughs, deputies by the principle of plurality system and proportional representation), the votes are counted and  the instance responsible of delivering the document that evidences the victory of the winning candidate is established.

Reference frame for the electoral “counting of votes” and “vote counting system”

According to the provisions of the Electoral Code of the Federal District (CEDF), the counting of votes constitutes the third stage of the local electoral process, which is denominated as “Counting of votes and results of the elections”. To approach the matter, in such law two fundamental concepts can be distinguished: the “counting of votes” and the “vote counting system”.

In a wide sense of the electoral vocabulary, the terms “counting of votes” and “vote counting system” are treated as terms referred to a same procedure: the sorting, grouping and recounting of the received votes, with the purpose of determining the winner of each election and to record such result in the respective minutes.

The local legal frame does not include, in an express manner, a definition of these concepts. Nevertheless, the composition of the articles in which this subject is treated at the Electoral Code for the Federal District allows observing that they are different categories.

Actually, the vote counting system is an activity circumscribed to the counting of votes in the polling stations on the day of the elections. In this sense it can be understood as the act of separating the electoral ballots per kind of election and carry out the physical count starting from it.

In consequence, the vote counting system is conceived as the main part of the electoral counting that is oriented to provide the sufficient elements so that, once it is proper, the collegiate instances or councils that form the electoral local authority add, this means, determine the figures by district, borough and federative entity.

a) Polling station vote counting system and vote counting

In this context, the Polling station’s vote counting system and counting of votes is a task reserved to the citizens that receive the voting, in their quality of officers of the directive boards of Polling station: In fact, within this work team, besides from the president and the secretary of the Polling station there is the figure of the teller.

The proceeding of vote counting system and counting of the casted votes is performed before the presence of the representatives of the contending political forces or parties once the Polling station has been closed. For that purpose, the law specifies a sequence that establishes that the vote counting system must begin with the election of the Head of Government continue with that of the deputies to the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District and finish with that of the head of the borough.

To this regard, the teller classifies the ballots corresponding to each election and counts them to determine the number of null votes. In the case that the ballots of a different election are found in the urn, these are separated and counted in the corresponding election. Once verified the amount of votes received, the secretary of the directive board transcribes such results in the vote counting system minutes and makes the counting of votes of the Polling station for each election.

Once this stage is concluded, the officers and representatives of the political forces that participated in the Polling station proceed to sign the minutes. A legible copy of it is given to each party representative, obtaining a receipt of it. Notwithstanding, in case that anybody objects due to facts concerning the development of the day, they have the right to sign under protest pointing out the reason that motivates them to do so.

Following, a file for each type of election is formed, denominated as Polling station file, which is turned in to the corresponding district council, attached with the following documents:

• A copy of the minutes of the day of the elections (which constitutes a kind of circumstantial report of the development of the election in the Polling station),

• Two copies of the minutes of vote counting system and counting of votes of the corresponding election along with an inserted copy in an envelope attached on the outside of the electoral package, and

• The incidents reports that would have been received

Also, in the electoral package separated envelopes are included containing:

• The remaining unused ballots and those containing the valid and null votes for each election,

• The definitive Voter List of electors with picture that was used to identify the voters, and

• Rest of the remaining material.

b) The district counting of votes of the elections and the delivery of records to the elected deputies by the principle of plurality system

The counting of votes implies the addition of the votes obtained based on the counting of the votes performed Polling station by Polling station, with the purpose of aggregating amounts for each geographical area of election and by that, aggregate a result that indicates who is the winning candidate of each election.

For the case of the Federal District the counting is performed in ascending order. It begins with what is known as district counting of votes, that brings out results by local electoral district, next is the counting of votes of Borough, that as its name indicates, refers to the grouping of figures to determine the winner in a Borough or territorial Entity, and at last is the Total entity counting of votes through which the amounts of the Polling stations installed in the whole federative entity are consolidated.

In this sense, the counting of votes is an activity performed in the 40 District Councils of the IEDF and its results are formally registered through the Minutes of the District Counting of Votes.

In such regard, the Electoral Code of the Federal District (CEDF) establishes in its article 309 that:

“The District counting of votes of an election is the addition performed by the District Council, of the results noted in the minutes of vote counting system and counting of votes of the Polling stations in an electoral district or of those included in magnetic means, in case of an electronic voting”.

By virtue of the fact that the district counting of votes is performed for each one of the four types of offices elected in the Mexican Capital (Head of Government, heads of the boroughs deputies of pluratily system and deputies of proportional representation) the design of each minutes equally correspond to the relevant election (see the images of the annex that appear at the end of this chapter). It is important to highlight that in the elections of 2009, the election of the Head of Government was not realized.

Based on the provisions of the Code, it can be understood that the procedure of the district counting of votes is carried out in according to the following:

• As the electoral packages of the Polling stations are received, the ones that do not present tampering signs are opened and the files of each election are extracted.

The Chairman Counselor of the District Council extracts the minutes of the vote counting system and counting of votes from the Polling station files and makes the results of the knowledge of the Council members. In this case, the counting begins with the election of Head of Government, followed by the election of heads of the boroughs head and at the end those corresponding to the deputies of the Legislative Assembly.

Below it shows the total votes cast in electronic ballot boxes in the 40 districts, during the elections of 2009, and the respective percentage of citizen participation.

In the elections of the year 2009, the System of District and Borough counting of votes (SICODID 2009) was used as a fundamental tool, which on top of supporting this procedure in the district session, was the means that allowed a timely transmission of the preliminary information so that the General Council was able to inform of the trends of the vote the same day that the elections took place.

Pursuant to article 310, section II, last paragraph of the CEDF:

“If it is not possible to use technological instruments authorized by the General Council, the Chairman Counselor of the District Council will extract the minutes of vote counting system and counting of votes included in the Polling stations file, and will proceed to read (the results) out loud”.

b) The secretary notes the results of the minutes pre established for such purpose. In those cases in which the minutes of the Polling stations present mistakes or evident alterations that create reasonable doubt of the result, or were illegible or are missing in the file of Polling station, the electoral package must be separated.

c) At the end of the reception of packages the opening of those showing evidence of tampering is carried out in order to make the counting of Polling station before the District council.

For such purpose the District Council performs a procedure of vote counting system based on the following rules:

• The Secretary of Council opens the mentioned package or file and making sure of its contents, counts out loud the unused ballots, null votes and valid votes.

• The results are noted in the Minutes of vote counting system and counting of Polling station prepared in the District Council, which must be signed by the members of the Council, leaving record of it at the corresponding descriptive minutes.

d) The sum of the results obtained after carrying out the foregoing operations, it constitutes the district counting of votes of the elections for Head of Government, head of the borough and deputies of the Legislative Assembly by the principle of plurality system, which is recorded at the corresponding district minutes.

e) For the purpose of carrying out, on the other hand, the counting of votes of the election of deputies of proportional representation, the votes received at the special Polling stations (that are extracted of the Minutes of voters in transit) are added to the results calculated for the election of deputies by the principle of plurality system.

At the descriptive minutes of the session the results of the counting of votes and the incidents that occur during the session are recorded, as well as the objections expressed by any of the representatives of the political forces before the District Council.

Once this stage is concluded, the Chairman Counselor of the District Council immediately proceeds to:

• Submit the electoral file of the elections for head of the borough, as well as the results of district counting of votes to the corresponding District Council head of the borough. At the same time, the District Councils which work as the main collegiate body in the Borough proceed to protect the received files to carry out the counting of votes of the Borough under their competence.

• To submit to the General Council of the Electoral Institute of the Federal District the electoral file and the results of the district counting of votes for the elections for Head of Government and deputies by the principle of proportional representation, for the purpose of such Board carrying out the total counting of votes of these elections

• Set the results of each one of the elections carried out in the Federal District in the exterior of the facility of the District Council

In order to issue the record of majority the formula of the candidates to elected deputies, based on the results expressed at the Minutes of district counting of votes for the election of deputies for the Legislative Assembly by the principle of plurality system, the District Councils hold sessions Thursday following the day of the elections.

The Mexican electoral law sets forth the instance which is responsible of delivering the document that evidences the victory of the elected candidate.

In the local elections in 2009, an unpublished and innovated aspect was the use of a statistic method called Dynamic Counts, capable of generate trustable information about the electoral tendencies in an immediately way, the same day of the election. This mechanism was showed and was evaluated in the Special Committee, Charged to Elaborate the Pertinent Projects of Procedures in order to know the Tendencies and/or the Preliminary Electoral Results the day of the election (COREPRE 2009).

This committee met in 17 occasions and it coordinated four drills through which the tests of transmission and distribution of Partial Election Results Program PREP 2009, were conducted, among other activities.

c) The vote counting of the election for head of the borough and the delivery of the records to the winning candidates

For the purpose of the elections for 16 heads of the boroughs the Electoral Code for the Federal District foresees in its article 135 the following:

“... the General Council will appoint the District Councils which work as the main collegiate body in the Borough, taking as a basis the districts in which the central offices of the relevant Borough are located”

Thus, the District Councils heads of the borough, besides carrying out the district counting of votes for the delivery of the record to the deputy by the principle of plurality system elected in their scope of competence, comply with the entrustment of counting votes that have been issued for the candidate to head of the borough.

In this sense, the District Council head of the borough carries out the counting of votes of the election for head of the borough that consists of the sum of the results recorded at the counting of votes minutes of the districts that correspond to the territorial Entity.

The final result is recorded at the Minutes of District Counting of Votes for the election of the head of the borough, which shall be signed by the members of the District Council head of the borough and by it the Chairman Counselor carries on to issue the record to the candidate who obtained the highest number of votes.

In a similar manner to what happens with the district counting of votes, the results of the counting of votes and the incidents that occurred are recorded at the descriptive minutes of the session and the results obtained at the counting of votes are published at the exterior of the offices and the elections file is integrated, which is submitted to the Executive Secretary of the Institute and a certified copy of which is preserved.

d) The vote counting for the elections of Head of Government and deputies of proportional representation and the delivery of records to the winners.

The General Council of the Electoral Institute of the Federal District sessions on Saturday following the day of the elections, in order to carry out the Total Counting of Votes of the elections for Head of Government and deputies by the principle of proportional representation. It should be noted that the elections of Head of the Government are carried out each six years, and therefore the vote counting is carry out each six years too, whereas in the case of the deputies of the proportional representation, these procedures are developed every three years.

The procedure consists of summing, for each one of the elections, the results recorded at the 40 District Counting of Votes Minutes that were submitted to it. For the election of Head of Government, the Chairman Counselor of the General Council proceeds to issue the record of majority to the candidate of the winner political party or coalition. In case of the election for deputies of proportional representation, once the counting of votes is carried out the distribution of seats to be taken at the Congress is carried out between the political forces who are entitled for that, in accordance to the rules and operations set forth by articles 12, 13 and 14 of the Electoral Code for the Federal District.

Based on the foregoing, the Chairman of the General Council issues to each political party or coalition the records of proportional award that correspond to them.

Likewise, the results of the counting of votes and the incidents that can occur shall be recorded at the descriptive minutes of the session. Also, at the exterior of the offices the results obtained by the counting of votes will be published.

In the case of objections to the results of the elections, filed by the parties or political forces that consider themselves affected by the award resolved by the IEDF, the later will be notified of the effects of the resolutions that as a first instance are issued by the Electoral Court for the Federal District and, in case of requesting the intervention of a second instance, by the Electoral Court of the Judicial Power of the Federation.

Based on the foregoing, if it is necessary the IEDF will carry out the rectifications requested by the judicial instances as well as the re expedition or cancellation of the records of majority or award of proportional representation, correspondingly.

Synthesizing, except for when there are objection remedies against the results that require the intervention of the jurisdictional instances to determine the winners, the qualification of the electoral results, and therefore, the validity of an election goes through the consolidation of figures that the collegiate organizations of the Electoral Institute of the Federal District carry out; this is, the District Councils by the instruments named district and borough counting of votes and the Total Counting of Votes carried out by the General Council.

The following schedule summarizes the route followed by the counting of votes and delivery of the records of majority of every kind of election in the Federal Distric

e) Annex: Forms of minutes of vote counting system and counting of votes at the local elections of 2009 in the Federal District

Note on the electoral minutes used in 2009

a) Electoral minutes A12 UNO y A21 UNO, correspond to the Common Candidatures (PRD-PT-Convergencia) in the local districts IX, XVII, XX, XXVII y XXX.

b) Electoral minutes A12 DOS y A21 DOS, correspond to the Common Candidatures (PRD-Convergencia) in the local districts XIV y XXI.

c) The electoral minute A03 UNO, corresponds to each Political Party and to the Common Candidatures, picked up in the district seat.

d) Electoral minutes A04 UNO, A32 UNO y A41 UNO, correspond to the Common Candidatures (PRD-PT-Convergencia) for the election of the head of the borough in Benito Juárez, Coyoacán, Cuajimapla de Morelos and Miguel Hidalgo.

e) Electoral minutes A04 DOS, A32 DOS y A41 DOS, correspond to the Common Candidatures (PRD-PT) for the election of the head of the borough in Álvaro Obregón, Milpa Alta and Tláhuac.

f) Electoral minutes A04 TRES, A32 TRES y A41 TRES, correspond to the Common Candidature (PRD-Convergencia) for the election of the head of the borough in Azcapotzalco.

g) Electoral minutes A04 CUATRO, A32 CUATRO y A41 CUATRO, correspond to the Common Candidature (PT-Convergencia) for the election of the head of the borough in Venustiano Carranza