The intersection of 9th and Central Street in downtown Los Angeles is a piece of Mexico. There are carnitas taquerias on the sidewalks, vendors selling fresh fruit and the only stores where piñatas are sold. Only one thing distinguishes this scene: there are no banners or electoral propaganda in sight like the one that covers the markets and cities in southern California. The electoral process of June 2 is beyond the concerns of many Mexicans abroad.
“The presidents are real rats, they are tired of stealing from Mexico,” says Margarita Torres, 53 years old. Originally from Tepeaca, Puebla, she has been in California since 1994. After her arrival in the United States she worked as a seamstress, but she believes that the business has gone down. For six years, she has run a small street food stand with her husband, also Mexican. “Those of us who are here do not know what Mexico is going to end up with. Between so much murder, so much assault. They are going to finish it. Why do you think we are here as refugees? ”She adds.
Margarita has an INE credential, which allows her to participate in the elections. She will not do it because she does not want to vote for any of the candidates, neither the ruling party Claudia Sheinbaum, leader in the polls, nor the opposition candidate, Xóchitl Gálvez. He has barely heard of Jorge Álvarez Maynéz. She admires the current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. “That is good. If he stayed another six years, happy for me,” he says.
Mexicans abroad will participate on June 2 for the first time in an election in which López Obrador does not appear as a candidate. Voting abroad became a reality in 2006, the first time the current president appeared on a ballot seeking office. So 40,800 people registered to vote and 32,000 votes were received. 35.8% of residents abroad voted for Felipe Calderón, who won the presidency under suspicion of fraud, followed by 35.3% for AMLO.
In 2012, barely 8,000 more votes were counted than six years before. Those 40,000 ballots were less than 0.01% of the effective vote received in Enrique Peña Nieto’s victory. In 2018, the largest vote from abroad was recorded so far. 98,470 votes were counted, 77% cast from the United States.
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The number of voters abroad has grown since then and despite the fact that by law female candidates cannot campaign abroad. This year there are 223,000 Mexicans on the nominal list. The figure, although the largest in history, is a tiny fraction of the Mexican diaspora, which exceeds 12.1 million people. Registered voters are even less than the 1.5 million voting credentials that the National Electoral Institute (INE) has delivered abroad in this electoral cycle.
“We expect at least the historic voting percentage from abroad, which has been 60%. That is our expectation and we believe that we can have a good number,” says Cuitláhuac Osorio, the director of the federal voter registry of the INE. The official explains how the body, the Mexican electoral authority, has tried to make voting easier. A 2014 reform increased the options for voting from abroad to three: postal, online and in person at an electronic ballot box installed in 23 consulates.
Modifications to the rules from a decade ago allow, in addition to president, to vote for senators and governors. This is only possible for citizens whose state Congress has approved voting abroad. Only 23 of the 32 entities endorse it. This year, for example, Veracruz residents abroad will not be able to elect a local representative.
One week before the elections, the INE has received 30,500 votes by mail, 54% of those who preferred that route. These packages are stored in a warehouse and will be opened on election day. The majority abroad, however, chose to vote online. This system was enabled on May 18 and will receive votes until six in the afternoon, central Mexico time, on June 2. Some 45,000 people had voted during the first week on the Internet.
“These votes travel encrypted and are deposited in an electronic vault that has been enabled and will be open until June 2 at 6:30 p.m. We only know how many people have voted, but not the meaning of the vote,” explains Osorio.
Madrid, over Los Angeles
Another 15,000 people are called to vote in person at one of the 23 consulates where there will be an electronic ballot box. Most of these machines are found in the United States, where the bulk of Mexicans abroad reside. In this country there will be 20 consulates that will serve as voting booths. The other three will be in Madrid, Spain; Paris, France and Montreal, Canada.
Voter registration in Madrid has surpassed that of Los Angeles, the city with the most Mexicans in the world after Mexico City. Some 1,989 people have asked to vote in the Spanish capital while there are 1,362 Angelenos. In Chicago, another city receiving Mexicans, there are 1,317 people registered.
From the INE they explain that for the first time there will be 1,500 electronic ballots in each of these 23 diplomatic representations that can be marked by anyone who has a valid voter ID, regardless of whether it was issued in Mexico or abroad. This attempts to replicate the model of the special boxes, which allow those who are traveling or in transit during the day to pay. Osorio explains that citizen pressure increased the number of votes from 1,000 to 1,500 for this year.
Despite the effort to expand the right to vote, Ignacio Morales will not participate in the elections. Originally from Santa María del Cobre, he is part of the largest group of the Mexican diaspora in the United States, the Michoacans. He lives in Los Angeles and could not process the credential in time due to a series of bureaucratic problems. He is calm with what he believes will be the outcome. “I am comfortable with the president we have and I think the candidate he is going to put in is good,” he says. He is the voice of the silent majority who live abroad but do not vote.
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