Tuesday morning began the hand counting of ballots submitted nationwide in Sunday’s elections.  At each voting table the votes were counted and tabulated, then sealed in a bag for delivery to the TSE building in San Jose.  The election results seen in the local media or on the TSE web site are a result of the tabulation of the reports given from each table.

The hand count involves opening the bag and verifying the table reports. This makes the polling station report official and will eventually lead to an official result.

During the counting the 5 magistrates and 4 alternates magistrates will work 10 hours per day. Each magistrate will be in charge of one of 5 tables, where as many as 13 TSE employees will scrutinize each ballot to make sure it is a valid vote, and to count correctly who it is for.  Each party may send an observer to verify the counting.  The process may take up to 30 days by law, but TSE officials expect to complete the counting in 14 days.

The TSE has announced that results of the tabulation of polling places will be distributed at 8 pm tonight.  Most Costa Ricans will not watch this, since Saprissa and Heredia will start their soccer match at 8 pm too (just kidding). 

These, however are preliminary results not the official results.  While the projected winner tonight is likely stand as the winner, with such a tight election no celebrating will be done until the official results are in, or maybe it will.   If that confuses you, try these quotes from the TSE:

The President of the Supreme Election Tribunal (TSE), Oscar Fonseca, explained that "we are going to make this effort, because we understand very well the preoccupation and desire of the people of Costa Rica to know the definite, but provisional result of the elections. "

He added  " It is official, because the Tribunal is divulging it and it is provisional because until we count every ballot we cannot give the official result".

Oscar Fernandez, TSE - Election Programs official, said that tonight the TSE will not say who is going to be the president of the country from 2006 to 2010, but the media, politicians, political analysts and the Costa Rican people will have enough data to determine the winner.

So tune in to your television or favorite web site to find out who won (maybe).