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 News from Around the Americas | June 2006 
Mexicans Must Mail Ballots Immediately
 Norma de la Vega - Union-Tribune
| | Absentee voting ends on Saturday. |
Mexicans living outside the country who are registered to vote in the presidential election Sunday must mail their ballots immediately if they want them to be counted.
The Mexican Federal Electoral Institute, known as the IFE, said more than 12,000 ballots have not been received and called on those who have them to mail them as soon as possible.
This is the first election in which Mexicans living abroad are able to vote. Federal election authorities must receive the mail-in ballots no later than Saturday.
In Mexico City, Patricio Ballados, the IFE's coordinator for voting from abroad, said air-mail deliveries take several days. Ballados said the institute approved the ballots of 40,000 emigrants and, as of the end of last week, it had received 27,700 of them.
Contrary to early expectations, emigrants' votes won't play an important role in the election. Mexican officials had predicted some 4 million Mexicans living in the United States would meet the criteria for the absentee ballots, but the number is far smaller.
Ballados said 54,000 emigrants registered to vote, and 14,000 were eliminated because they didn't follow the registration process precisely.
Overall, 71 million Mexicans have registered to vote.
The registration process for those who live outside Mexico was complex, expensive and had to be accomplished in a short time.
Jorge Santibáñez, president of the border think tank Colegio de la Frontera Norte near Tijuana, said in a recent discussion at the University of San Diego that emigrants didn't bother to vote because their concerns and interests were not addressed.
Norma de la Vega: (619) 293-1386; norma.delavega@enlacelink.com |
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