At least 750,000 ordinary Mexican citizens served as polling station officers in Sunday’s federal and state elections.
As they counted the millions of votes cast, they were watched over by representatives of the political parties involved. Once the counts were finished and deemed correct, the officers packaged up the ballots and put them into special boxes for delivery by the polling station president to the corresponding electoral office. The officers duly noted down the final tallies for each party, as well as the number of invalid votes, on the official returns (actas). The officers and the political observers then signed off on the numbers, noting down any irregularities that may have taken place over the course of the day.