 |
|
|
 News from Around the Americas | April 2005 
Mexicans In U.S. May Vote
 Mexico Herald
PRI senators say they will propose allowing registered voters abroad the right to vote in 2006. |
The nation's former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party announced that it would introduce a bill allowing registered Mexicans living abroad to vote by mail, a measure that officials said could be implemented by next year's presidential election.
The modification in the Senate of a more sweeping proposal approved in February by the lower House of Congress would make voting simpler for Mexicans in the United States and avoid the cost and legal hassles of setting up thousands of polling stations outside Mexico, Sen. Silvia Hernández told a news conference.
"The voters will not have to travel for three hours to go to their consulate," said Hernández. "The mailbox can be on the corner."
The new Senate proposal also would prohibit Mexican candidates from campaigning abroad, something the House bill would have allowed.
Backed by the largest voting bloc in the Senate, the modifications were scheduled to be introduced to committees on Monday afternoon and could come up for a full senate vote as soon as Tuesday, Hernández said.
The House still must approve any changes by the Senate.
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.
In February, the lower House approved a bill that not only would allow Mexicans living abroad to vote but also would register many of the estimated 11 million Mexicans living outside the country, mostly in the United States.
Currently, only about 40 percent of those foreign residents are believed to be registered.
The House bill had prompted federal government officials to warn of the potential and probable difficulties of setting up voting places, registering and keeping tabs of voters, and training election officials.
"We senators have thought about how we could not do the electoral process outside the country but instead do the entire electoral process here," Hernández said. "There is only one step, which is sending an envelope and receiving it. ... Only the vote is emitted from outside, and the process is done in Mexico."
Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez has said Mexico does not have enough consulates or offices in the United States to register voters and Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute warned that it would be difficult to guard properly against fraud under the House proposal.
Derbez also said some undocumented migrants might run a risk by trying to cast absentee ballots if U.S. immigration authorities decided to take advantage of the occasion to carry out detention operations, while a massive, public voter turnout by Mexican migrants might fuel anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States.
Lawmakers from President Vicente Fox's National Action Party had criticized provisions in the House bill that proposed increases in public funding of campaigns abroad and they suggested it was already late to begin registering new voters abroad.
Hernández said Mexicans abroad should have access to sufficient information about the presidential campaign through the U.S. media and family members still in Mexico.
Mexicans in the United States use the mail regularly, making it simple and easy way to vote, she said.
Mexico's postal service is known for being unreliable or worse. Mexican lawmakers last year demanded an investigation into the theft of millions of dollars in U.S. benefit checks from the Mexican postal service.
But Hernández said absentee ballots would pass through few hands in Mexico, arriving directly by air at the Mexico City airport before being transported across town to be counted. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us