Mexico election: Shocking absentee ballot data

The IFE (Mexican Electoral Insitute) has released the results of the absentee ballots which were cast in the United States by Mexican citizens in the July 2 presidential election. Some of the numbers are stunning. This IFE link will be, of course, in Spanish. Go to the middle of the page where it says, "Resultado de los Cómputos Distritales para el voto de los mexicanos residentes en el extranjero:

Elección de Presidente de los EUM de 2006 por entidad federativa

Then click on the arrows. You may not be able to read Spanish but all the numbers are in Arabic.

For instance, it is estimated that at least 10 million Mexicans live in the United States and that is a very conservative estimate. Of those 10 million (or more) only 40,876 registered to vote in the election. That's less than a one half of one percent who registered to vote. That seems an amazingly small number to me.

I am fully aware that the rules regarding registering were troublesome. Nevertheless I would have expected to see at least a 15-25 percent registration rate, not a half a percent.

In any event, Felipe Calderón won the absentee balloting by a substantial margin, 57% to 33% over AMLO. The tiny number of absentee ballots actually cast, - 33,131 - means that these totals will have no effect whatsoever on the outcome.

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TAGS: Mexico election, absentee ballots