lines have emptied, or by the hour, at the discretion of the president of the voting table. Voters register fingerprints and identity card details onto the Electoral Register, and these are verified during the voting process. Voters sign a register to confirm that they have voted, and have a finger marked with election ink. In March 2018, Smartmatic, the British electoral products company (now SGO Corporation) which had participated in the majority of elections under the Bolivarian government, ceased operations in Venezuela, stating that they could no longer guarantee the validity of election results through its machines. Tally scrutinization After the polls close at any voting table, the following steps are carried out: The DRE voting machine is ordered to close the voting session. Tally scrutinization announced. Each voting machine prints an original tally sheet, each has a voter total and the number of votes cast for each candidate cast in that particular machine/table. Each voting machine is connected to the network and the results are sent to the vote counting center. Nine extra tally sheets are printed and distributed to the staff and the six representatives of the candidates that received the most votes. With the original tally sheet in hand the total number of votes cast is compared to the signed up sheet or electoral notebook. Finally, for those machines chosen for the audit (see below) the electoral ballots, or paper trails, are counted one by one to determine if they add up to the totals in the tally sheet. Any anomaly is mentioned in the tally sheet report, signed by the staff and auditors, and then sealed and given to the military for delivery to the CNE. Random paper ballot audit Once the tally scrutinization is complete the staff proceeds to perform a random paper ballot audit of 54.31% of the machines. Each voting center can have anywhere from one to twelve voting machines, occasionally up to fifteen. The staff randomly selects the tables/machines by drawing a number out of a paper hat. The size of the draw is dependent on the number of tables/machines. The following procedures occur step by step: Polls are closed Tally scrutinization finishes Random paper ballot audit announced The machines are randomly selected drawing numbers out of a paper hat The machine's serial number is recorded The corresponding paper ballot box is selected and opened The paper ballots results for each candidate