Tuesday, April 12, 2011

IFE starts to register voters living "abroad." More balanced this time?

IFE, the Mexican Federal Electoral Institute responsible for arranging Mexico's federal elections,  now has started the process of registering voters "abroad," meaning in all essence the United States, for the 2012 contests. Mexican expats can access the site http://www.votoextranjero.mx/ for more information.

In this regard, I would here like to particularly recommend the chapter "Absentee Voting and Transnational Civic Engagement among Mexican Expatriates, by James McCann et al in the 2009 edited volume Consolidating Mexico's Democracy: The 2006 Presidential Campaign in Comparative Perspective by Jorge  Domínguez et al.

In essence, it describes how PRI-PAN-PRD support was quite even in the US, but that the (abysmally low number of) voters who actually took the trouble of voting in the US, did it overwhelmingly for PAN. They explain this as essentially due to the institutional hurdles to be overcome, far easier surmounted by more resource-rich and more highly educated panistas.

Let's hope IFE makes a serious effort to address these inequities in the expat voting process.

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