Overview
- The Sala Superior issued a binding decision on Wednesday, October 7, 2026, that ballots lacking visible fold marks — known as “boletas planchadas” — shall not be counted when that condition is proven.
- The tribunal grounded the ruling in the legal voting sequence: voters receive, mark, fold and deposit the ballot, and the absence of a fold is an objective sign the ballot did not follow that process.
- As a rule, the decision assigns the authority to declare those ballots invalid to the citizens on each polling-station board, with district electoral councils intervening only exceptionally during recounts.
- The court ordered the INE to change its 2026–2027 computation lineaments so that detected foldless ballots are recorded in the incident sheet, kept separate from counted votes, and not incorporated into totals.
- The ruling responds to prior problems in 2024 and 2025 when foldless ballots appeared in many polling stations, and it will force the INE to update procedures, train polling staff and tighten safeguards that can affect final tallies.