Voting stopped at 6 pm or whenever anyone who was in line to vote at 6 pm was done voting (article 224); the poll could be closed earlier only if all members of the Directing Committee agreed that all registered voters had cast their vote. Once the polling place closed, the Directing Committee was in charge of counting and recording the votes, in the presence of the party representatives (article 229 of the COFIPE). After the counting was over, the totals for each candidate, the total of write-in votes, the total of annulled votes, and the total of left-over blank ballots were recorded in the "Acta de Escrutinio" (official tally sheet); in addition, any incidents that occurred during the voting or counting would be described in writing (article 232). Finally, every member of the Directing Committee and every party representative present were required to sign the tally sheet; the latter were allowed to sign under protest and explain their reasons, if they so desired (article 233).