My Trip to Mexico and the Mexican Election
07/05/2012
A+
|
a-
Print Friendly and PDF

My family and I have returned safely from our summer visit to Mexico. We brought my wife's parents with us for a visit to the U.S. and they plan to return later.

We departed Mexico on July 1st, the day of the election. (See Mexico Votes on July 1—How Does It Affect Us?)

On July 1st, we went to the polling station where my wife, her parents, and her aunt voted. (I of course did not vote, not being a Mexican citizen).

I've written about the Mexican voter registration system before, see here and here. Mexico issues voters a photo ID, which is considered a bad thing by liberals when proposed in the U.S. In Mexico, the photo voter ID is used in conjunction with a book which contains the photo of every single voter in the voting precinct, to match with the ID.

At the polling station where my wife voted, there were 4 poll workers. One poll worker received the voter's ID card and read off the voter's name. Another poll worker checked the photo book. Another poll worker gave the voter the ballots. And the other poll worker put a perforation in the card, returned it to the voter, and put ink on the voter's thumb.

Besides the poll workers there were representatives of political parties, and they had the photo books also.

In addition, there were two other observers who were just observing.

My wife and her family are staunch supporters of the PAN, so they voted for Josefina Vazquez Mota. However, as expected, the winner was Enrique Pena Nieto of the PRI. The runner-up is Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the PRD, who is contesting the election results, as he did in 2006. Josefina was in third place, with Quadri (of the PANAL) in a distant fourth place.

Print Friendly and PDF