P.R. Laws tit. 16, § 4200
When the preliminary or general result of an election shows a difference between two candidates for the same elective public office of one hundred (100) votes or less, or zero point five percent (0.5%) or less of the total votes cast for such office, the Commission, at the request of any of the candidates in the dispute, shall conduct a manual recount of the votes cast in the polling places involved. In the case of senators and representatives-at-large, a manual recount of the polling places involved may be requested if the difference between the eleventh (11th) and twelfth (12th) candidate is one hundred (100) votes or less, or zero point five percent (0.5%) or less of the total votes adjudicated for the office in question. In the case of municipal legislators, a manual recount of the polling places involved may be requested if the difference between the last candidate and the one that follows is five (5) votes or less. The request for recount authorized herein shall have the effect of a contested action, and there shall be no certification of the winner until the manual recount of said polling places is made, as requested; thus confirming the voter’s intent and guaranteeing procedural integrity by counting every vote in the form and manner in which it was cast. The Commission shall perform the manual recount using the tally sheets and the ballots of the polling place as described below.
The Commission shall revise the tally sheets against the manual recount and adopt the former, duly revised, as the official tally sheet of the polling place in question. The Commission shall endorse said tally sheets with a statement signed by all the polling place officials working at the tables, attesting to the changes made and the reasons why they were made.
The Commission shall retain the contents of all election material bags opened by the officials working at the tables and they shall sign a written statement attesting to the return of all contents of the election material bags to the Commission.
Candidates entitled to a recount shall submit to the Commission a list of observers for said process within seventy-two (72) hours after the Commission’s notice. The Commission may not begin the recount process until the candidate has submitted the list of observers within the term set forth in this subtitle.
History —June 1, 2011, No. 78, § 10.010; July 22, 2016, No. 81, § 13.