In the specifications, I notice it says "your project can't exceed 300 characters".
Does this include the Lua headers at the top of the cartridge script? 

pico-8 cartridge // http://www.pico-8.com
version 34
__lua__

In addition, does this include any sprite , sound, or label data? I noticed in the example sprite and label existed and increased the project size considerably. If they do not, does this restriction just apply to the script itself?

And finally (just remembered one more), online character counters count whitespaces and returns. Do those also count towards the character count?

Thank you and look forward to your reply!