The definitive vote count, overseen by the Judicial Branch, has begun in recent hours. Eight provinces are eagerly awaiting the results, as it could alter the balance of power in Congress and, in some cases, the overall winner. What were the 'Basket Tickets' that Javier Milei plans to reactivate with labor reform? These are the provinces of Chaco, Chubut, Corrientes, La Pampa, La Rioja, Santa Cruz, Río Negro, and Buenos Aires, where the margins were minimal. For example, in La Rioja and Santa Cruz, the winning margin was less than 1,000 votes, while in Buenos Aires, the difference between the candidate for La Libertad Avanza (LLA), Diego Santilli, and the Peronist Jorge Taiana was just over 46,000 ballots. In the case of Buenos Aires province, the focus will be on the 206,177 null votes, 4,277 contested votes, and 2,122 impugned votes. While it would be difficult for the Buenos Aires recount to change the winner, it could modify the distribution of seats. The narrowest margin between the first and second place occurred in La Rioja, where the Peronism of Ricardo Quintela won by 621 votes. Meanwhile, in Santa Cruz, the list of priest Juan Carlos Molina, who competed for the Peronist alliance, prevailed with 728 more votes than La Libertad Avanza. In Río Negro, the libertarians won by 2,101 votes; and in Corrientes, the ruling party of Governor Gustavo Valdés won by 6,754 votes. In Chaco, the margin in favor of LLA was 4,741 votes, a situation that led to the non-recognition of the defeat by Fuerza Patria candidate Jorge Capitanich, who was elected senator by the minority but, if the result changes, would be elected by the majority and would also bring his running mate to the upper house. The focus of those hoping to improve their results in the definitive count is on null, contested, and impugned votes, as well as on the percentage of polling stations that remain to be scrutinized and are not included in the provisional count, which is carried out by the Executive Branch. Additionally, as this is the first time the Single Paper Ballot (BUP) has been used in most of the country, there may have been errors in the vote tally that will now be corrected and could tip the results in someone's favor.
