the Colegio de Mexico, specializing in Sociology, and is a researcher at the Institute of Social Research of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Pliego Carrasco criticizes the Alianza's filings by stating that they were based only on individual situations rather than a widespread study, that the information was based almost invariably on newspaper clippings, and that they only studied 26 districts. For his own study, Pliego Carrasco contrasted the growth in votes from the 2000 to the 2006 election for all parties. In all cases, the Alianza increased substantially more than the PAN, which even lost votes in the two categories of lowest marginalization. His conclusion is that there was no evidence that the PAN benefited from the expenditures. He found no statistical correlation between expenditures and the winning candidate. He derived similar conclusions for the other four programs. His conclusion is that the vote distribution does not support the hypothesis that social programs were used wholesale to influence the vote. Ballot packets opening Al Giordano's July 11, 2006 article has a La Jornada photo of a July 10 protest outside the office of the Federal Electoral Institute in the Tabasco town of Comalcalco. Giordano writes: "Trapped inside are at least ten IFE officials who, according to eyewitnesses, illegally entered the building, brought sealed ballot boxes out into the patio, and began to open them, breaking the official seals. They were seen revising anew the 'actas' with the vote tallies and recounting the ballots, without, as the law requires, the presence of representatives from all the political parties." On July 16 La Jornada claimed that 40% of the vote packets nationwide had been reopened illegally by the IFE. IFE officials later explained that the opening of the packets was not illegal, and that it only served to satisfy a petition by López Obrador's Coalition. Ballots found in trash There were various reports of ballots found in the trash. In Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl and in Xalapa, used ballots and other electoral materials were found in rubbish dumps. Al Giordano of Narco News wrote on July 5, 2006 of ballots discovered in the Nezahuacoyotl garbage dump. The article also has an El Universal photo of the garbage dump. His July 8 article has a La Jornada photo of three completed ballots found in a Mexico City trash can. Reforma later reported that the Federal Prosecutor in Electoral Crimes stated that no one