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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | April 2005 
Bill To Benefit Voters Abroad
 Wire services
| | Officials argued that setting up polling places would be too difficult. |
The Senate approved a plan for mail-in absentee ballots for Mexicans living abroad to vote in the country's 2006 presidential elections, after officials argued that setting up polling places would be too difficult.
The bill, which passed on a 912 vote, would require potential voters to have valid voter registration cards issued in Mexico, something only about 40 percent of the estimated 11 million Mexicans living abroad mainly in the United States have.
The proposal, which must still be approved by the lower house of Congress, would also require potential voters to request a ballot in writing.
Voters would have to request the ballots by sending a letter with a copy of their voter registry card, their address abroad and signature to Mexican electoral authorities between Oct. 1 and Jan. 15, 2006.
After checking the voter's registry data, the government would then send the absentee ballots out by mail between April and May, 2006; voters would have to return the completed ballot to Mexico by certified mail. The ballots would have to arrive in Mexico by June 30, about a week before the scheduled date for the elections.
The bill would not allow voters to turn their ballots into Mexican embassies or consulates, said Senate press spokesman Antonio Vázquez.
Officials had worried about the cost and legal hassles of setting up thousands of polling stations outside Mexico.
They were also concerned that undocumented migrants might be detained by U.S. immigration authorities if they went to polling places, or that a massive, public voter turnout by Mexican migrants might fuel anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States.
In February, a more ambitious voting plan was approved by the lower House of Congress, but Vázquez expressed confidence that legislators in that body would agree to the Senate version.
Mexicans living abroad were granted the right to vote and hold dual citizenship years ago, but they have been prevented from voting by the lack of an absentee ballot system. |
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