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 Editorials | At Issue | February 2006 
Hurdles Frustrate Mexican Voters
 Katherine Corcoran - Mercury News
Like many of his countrymen, Juan Castro wants dramatic change to come in Mexico's July 2 presidential election.
If a new president can bring economic reform, fewer people would need to follow Castro's path to the United States for better opportunities. Yet Castro, 37, a San Jose resident who is politically active in the Mexican-American group El Centro Azteca, won't be voting - despite citizens living abroad being eligible for the first time.
"It's almost impossible for working people like me," he said of the registration requirements for those lacking a copy of their Mexican voting cards. "You have to go to Tijuana, miss a day of work to register and miss another day to pick up (the voting card.) . . . Do I have that kind of money? No."
It's a refrain repeated across the Bay Area and the country. Of an estimated 4 million people in the United States who are eligible to vote in Mexico, little more than 1 percent have registered, according to numbers released last week by Mexican Federal Electoral Institute, or IFE.
If Mexican citizens abroad didn't have a voter card, they had to return to Mexico to get one. And some, like Castro, came to the United States before Mexico began issuing voter identification cards in 1992.
With the latest tally at 56,749, nearly 90 percent from the United States, Mexican officials say a combination of inadequate preparation, cumbersome logistics, voter apathy and other political disincentives adds up to dismal participation for the Mexican expatriate community.
Turnout for voting abroad tends to be minimal when the practice is first started. Even so, Mexico's numbers are particularly low, considering that 12 percent of eligible Iraqis in the United States voted in homeland elections in December.
Some local Mexican citizens say the bureaucratic obstacles were intentional because politicians fear the voting power of millions of expatriates disillusioned with the status quo.
"If 4 million people vote in Mexico, it will cause a tremendous change, and they want to control that," said Ranulfo Morales Rivera, 46, of Gilroy, who has always voted in Tijuana and plans to do the same this July.
Experts say both the government and the voters have a point. The electoral institute had just 170 days to implement a secure international voting system.
"Bureaucracies are not good at dealing with new situations," said Louis DeSipio, University of California-Irvine professor of Chicano/Latino studies. "But behind that, there's an ongoing concern among Mexican elites about introducing an unknown wild card in what seems to be a pretty close presidential election."
After years of debate and pressure from immigrants abroad, the Mexican Congress last June voted overwhelmingly to allow expatriates to vote in the presidential election, which occurs every six years. International interest in voting has grown in the last 10 to 15 years, along with political reforms and the dismantling of single-party rule by Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.
In the 2000 election, Vicente Fox of the conservative National Action Party, PAN, became the first non-PRI candidate in 71 years to win the presidency. Since then, Fox has been an advocate for reaching out to Mexico's enormous expatriate population, which is estimated at 10 million in the United States alone.
Close race predicted
Currently, candidates from the three major parties - PRI, PAN and the Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD - are running a close race, with PRD candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, former mayor of Mexico City, showing a slight lead in the polls.
Difficulties with registering were manifold. To get an absentee ballot later this spring, voters abroad had to provide a copy of their Mexican voting card and proof of address, postmarked by Jan. 15. Mexican citizens without voter cards had to return to Mexico to get one - a problem on many fronts, particularly for the Mexicans residing illegally in the United States.
The electoral institute didn't relax the identification card requirement for voters abroad out of fear of compromising the integrity of the national vote in a country that has made great strides in recent years to cut vote fraud and corruption.
Many eligible voters came to the United States long before Mexico began issuing voter identification cards. Others who came more recently, particularly illegal immigrants, either lost or left them behind.
"Smugglers encourage people to destroy their documents," said electoral institute spokeswoman Pilar Alvarez Lazo.
"When I talked to people here, they said they left their credentials in Mexico," said Jesus Javier Tellez Loucel, 21, a Stanford University senior from Baja California who helped distribute registration forms to Mexican nationals on campus, including workers in the cafeteria and custodial staffs. "But you only need to have a copy of the voting card. I tell them to have someone fax a copy of the card. That might solve a problem for some."
Logistics are not the only reason officials contend the numbers are low.
Poor, uneducated voters
Experts say that people who emigrate from Mexico are more likely to be poor and undereducated and are the least likely to vote. Iraqi immigrants, who posted higher registration rates, have a different socioeconomic status on average.
"The potential hurdles or barriers people have to jump over will affect who participates and who doesn't," said Ron Hayduk, political-science professor at the Borough of Manhattan Community College in New York. "Iraqis have more access to voting opportunities, more information and are more mobilized for a variety of reasons."
Local Mexican citizens also contend that Mexican politicians are concerned about expatriate voters turning against the establishment.
"They're afraid the people won't vote for the (ruling) party," said Rogelio Galan, 48, of Oakland, who is registered and plans to vote for the leftist PRD. "They know the popularity of López Obrador."
Whether voters are simply apathetic is a matter of debate. A Mexican consulate survey in Los Angeles showed that Mexicans there care about work, securing their legal status and education for their children far more than voting in their home country, said Bruno Figueroa, Mexican consul general in San Jose.
But in a Pew Hispanic Center poll last year, 87 percent of Mexican migrants in the United States said they would vote in the next Mexican election if given the chance.
Almost everyone agrees, however, that regulations will become more friendly to voters abroad over time, and participation will grow dramatically by the next election in 2012.
"We're not concerned about the numbers. The influence of Mexicans here is enormous" regardless of voter turnout, said Talia Vazquez Alatorre, an operative in the López Obrador campaign who met with potential voters in San Bruno last week. "This is the first time. It will be better next time." |
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