Deadlines are not always set down in an explicit way. However, there is a general trend towards a reduction in the periods during which electoral appeals can be filed. Such a trend is derived from a couple of needs. On one hand, it is necessary to renew public offices without any delay whatsoever. On the other hand, it is necessary to spend less and less time campaigning.
Two different appeals that can be distinguished from each other produce different filing deadlines. Deadlines are very different for those appeals used to challenge voters’ registers. There are three-day deadlines (Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Panama), four-day deadlines (Mexico), five-day deadlines (Chile, Dominican Republic, and Uruguay), fifteen-day and twenty-day deadlines (Argentina) and even thirty-day deadlines (Colombia). With regard to the preparations for the election day, there are three-day deadlines (Brazil and Guatemala), four-day deadlines (Mexico) and five-day deadlines (Argentina and Uruguay). Some countries’ deadlines are further extended, such as appeals against the registration of political parties (ten days in Peru and thirty days in Paraguay).
A second group of deadlines relates to appeals against electoral results. Some can be filed within twenty four hours after the counting has been done at the voting sites (Bolivia and Colombia); there are also “claims” and “complaints” which can be filed before superior electoral authorities (before elections are validated) which have to be filed within two days at the most (Argentina, Ecuador, El Salvador and Dominican Republic); in some other cases electoral results must be appealed within three days (Brazil and Costa Rica), within four days (Mexico) and five days (Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Uruguay). In Chile, electoral deadlines are set at the fifteenth day, while in Venezuela they are set at the twentieth or even the thirtieth day (with respect to the presidential contest). Peru decided to leave a more open deadline. Appeals can be filed there until a candidate has been declared as the winner.
Concerning electoral results, it must be noted that some systems for electoral litigation authorize departments within their electoral authorities to resolve appeals within different deadlines. For example, three day appeal periods are established in both Brazil (when the Supreme Electoral Tribunal resolves the appeals filed against rulings issued by regional electoral tribunals) and Mexico (where the Superior Court of the Electoral Tribunal resolves appeals filed against the rulings issued by regional courts on the inconformity appeals derived from congressional elections); as well as in Bolivia, without a specific deadline (when the National Electoral Court resolves appeals filed against the department electoral courts); and another option is an appeal filed within the same superior electoral authority (Guatemala and Nicaragua). In addition, some systems include the possibility of appealing before a non electoral judicial authority for constitutional reasons (Bolivia; Brazil, three days; Guatemala, five days to fill a constitutional review in the Supreme Court and two more days for an appeal at the Constitutional Court, like in Honduras or Panama), legality reasons (Colombia, eight days), or even a revision before a political authority (Argentina, with no specific deadline).
Deadlines to resolve electoral appeals are not always regulated and those that indeed are, have great variations. Regarding appeals against the electoral register, the deadlines to resolve them fluctuate between six (Chile and Mexico), eight (Guatemala) and ten days (Uruguay). Appeals against the creation of new parties vary from three (Costa Rica), four (Peru), six (Mexico), ten (Argentina) and fifteen days (Chile). Also the appeals filed against acts to prepare the election must be resolved within three (Guatemala), five (Argentina) or six days (Mexico).
There are also some systems that do not specify a deadline, but establish a point of reference such as before the declaration of the election (Costa Rica), before the elected authority takes the office or before the installment of the state congress (Mexico for state elections), or finally a deadline marked by an specific date (Mexico, which means twenty days for regional electoral tribunals to resolve appeals filed against congressional elections and ten to fifteen days for the superior electoral authority in the Electoral Tribunal for reconsidering an appeal against a congressional election or sixty days for presidential election).
Deadlines granted to jurisdictional bodies to resolve appeals filed against autonomous electoral authorities in the matter of electoral results vary from three days (for the Supreme Court of Guatemala to resolve trials related to the violation of fundamental rights), five (for the Constitutional Court of Guatemala to resolve appeals), to fifty days (Colombia).
In Argentina, regarding the appeals against electoral results filed at political agencies, there are no deadlines. As a matter of fact, with regard to the congressional elections, appeals can be filed even after Congress is opened for business (which means that congressional members hold their seats in a provisional way. In other words, they can be removed and replaced by other candidates after an appeal has been resolved).
