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 News from Around the Americas | July 2006 
Majority of Mexican Expats Voting Absentee Support Conservative
 Peter Prengaman - Associated Press
| | Vicente Gonzalez Beruman was among those who took buses from the United States and voted at Tijuana's airport Sunday. (Sean M. Haffey/Union-Tribune) |
Los Angeles - Most expatriates voting absentee had little difficulty deciding who should be the next president of Mexico, in contrast with their compatriots back home who were so split the race has yet to be settled.
Conservative candidate Felipe Calderon received 19,016 expatriate votes, or 58.3 percent, according to Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute, also known as IFE. The other top candidate, left-leaning Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, garnered 11,090 votes, or 34 percent.
The remaining absentee votes were spread between a handful of other candidates.
"Calderon was the only safe choice," said Luis del Angel Garcia, 42, a toy store owner in Los Angeles who voted absentee. "Obrador had some good ideas, but he was too connected to the left."
Through a brutal campaign, Calderon painted Lopez Obrador as a dangerous socialist similar to Venezuela President Hugo Chavez. Meanwhile, Lopez Obrador portrayed Calderon as a corrupt candidate of the rich who would follow the policies of outgoing President Vicente Fox.
With preliminary results from 97.98 percent of polling places, Calderon had 36.38 percent of the vote and Lopez Obrador had 35.34 percent. That gives Calderon a lead of about 402,700 votes.
Still, election officials said a victor would not be declared until an official count of tallies from tens of thousands of ballot boxes, which it would not start until Wednesday.
Though the absentee vote suggests a conservative political tendency of expatriate Mexicans, political analysts said few conclusions could be drawn because difficult voting requirements ensured millions of poor living abroad - those more likely to back Lopez Obrador - could not vote.
"The expatriate vote was an elite operation from start to finish," said George Grayson, an expert in Mexican politics at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. "If the rules of the game had been more liberal, you could have had a higher vote for Lopez Obrador."
When Mexico's Congress passed a law last year extending suffrage to expatriates, Mexicans in the U.S. hailed it as overdue recognition of the billions of dollars they send home every year.
Celebrations turned to frustration when it was learned people who wanted to vote needed a current electoral card, and that the cutoff date to apply for an absentee ballot was nearly six months before the election.
Fear kept many illegal immigrants from crossing the border to Mexico to vote in person or apply for a voter card, necessary to request an absentee ballot or vote in Mexico on Election Day.
"Why couldn't they have made it easier for us to vote here?" said Adriana Lopez, 27, a housewife and illegal immigrant living in Orange County who wanted to vote for Lopez Obrador.
Of the estimated 4.2 million eligible Mexican voters living abroad, the vast majority in the United States, only about 41,000 - or 1 percent - requested absentee ballots. Of the 32,632 valid absentee ballots mailed to IFE, 28,335 were from the United States.
Patricio Ballados, IFE's expatriate vote coordinator, said the agency would consider recommending to Congress that Mexican nationals be allowed to renew their voting cards at consulates.
"This was a first step of a historic vote," said Ballados. "It planted the seeds for years to come."
Regardless of Who Wins Election, Expatriates Say They Want Change
Araceli Esparza - whittierdailynews.com
A too-close-to-call presidential election left Mexicans on both sides of the border awaiting a final result Monday. But local expatriates said, regardless of who wins, it's time for a change in Mexico.
Be it skepticism about the voting process, mistrust of the country's politics, or simply a lack of interest, many Mexicans living locally in the U.S. said they feel disconnected with the politics of Mexico.
What many said they want - no matter which party gains political control - is a fundamental change in that country's educational system, its health care system and its economy.
"It's a waste of time" to vote, said Frank Lopez, 48, of La Puente, whose dual citizenship made him eligible to vote, a privilege he said he declined.
"It doesn't matter who wins. They're all corrupt," Lopez said.
He echoed the sentiments of many Mexican citizens living in the San Gabriel Valley and Whittier area.
"There's no trust in the government, which is supposed to be seeing after social needs," Norwalk resident Pete Gomez said. "You can vote for one person, you can put your hopes and dreams on them, but it won't happen."
Although Gomez said much of Mexico's social system has improved, he believes a single presidential term of six years cannot bring about the sort of wide-reaching transformation that is needed in Mexico.
"Things will just remain the same," Juana Olmedo, 79, of Montebello said.
She was among hundreds of Mexican expatriates who drove to Tijuana to cast their ballots. Olmedo said she had planned to vote for Roberto Madrazo, the presidential candidate for the Revolutionary Institutional Party. But after waiting in a long line, a frustrated Olmedo gave up without casting her vote.
"If they don't fulfill their promises, what a deception that would be. People no longer want injustice. People no longer respect the government," Olmedo said.
Among Mexican expatriates voting absentee, conservative candidate Felipe Calderon received 19,016 expatriate votes, or 58.3 percent, according to Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute, also known as IFE. The other top candidate, left-leaning Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador garnered 11,090 votes, or 34 percent.
The remaining absentee votes were spread between a handful of other candidates.
"Calderon was the only safe choice," said Luis del Angel Garcia, 42, a toy store owner in Los Angeles who voted as an absentee. "Obrador had some good ideas, but he was too connected to the left."
With preliminary results from 98.31 percent of polling places, Calderon had 36.37 percent of the vote and Lopez Obrador had 35.35 percent. That gives Calderon a lead with some 380,000 votes.
Still, election officials said a victor would not be declared until an official count of tallies from tens of thousands of ballot boxes, which will not start until Wednesday.
Though the absentee vote suggests a conservative political tendency of expatriate Mexicans, political analysts said few conclusions could be drawn because difficult voting requirements ensured millions of poor living abroad - those more likely to back Lopez Obrador - could not vote.
"The expatriate vote was an elite operation from start to finish," said George Grayson, an expert in Mexican politics at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. "If the rules of the game had been more liberal, you could have had a higher vote for Lopez Obrador."
When Mexico's Congress passed a law last year extending suffrage to expatriates, Mexicans in the U.S. hailed it as overdue recognition of the billions of dollars they send home every year.
Celebrations turned to frustration when it was learned people who wanted to vote needed a current electoral card, and that the cutoff date to apply for an absentee ballot was nearly six months before the election.
Fear kept many illegal immigrants from crossing the border to Mexico to vote in person or apply for a voter card, necessary to request an absentee ballot or vote in Mexico on election day.
"Why couldn't they have made it easier for us to vote here?" asked Adriana Lopez, 27, a housewife and illegal immigrant living in Orange County who wanted to vote for Lopez Obrador.
Of the estimated 4.2 million eligible Mexican voters living abroad, the vast majority in the United States, only about 41,000 - or 1 percent - requested absentee ballots. Of the 32,632 valid absentee ballots mailed to IFE, 28,335 were from the United States.
Eduardo Hernandez, 31, of Azusa, who works at a Mexican meat market in Pico Rivera, said he followed the Mexican presidential campaign via Spanish TV news and newspapers. But he felt little interest in voting, especially since he had so little time in which to register.
Julia Gonzales, a Mexican expatriate from Los Angeles, said regardless of who becomes Mexico's president, it likely won't impact her and her family here.
"Since my family came here, I don't keep up too much with their government," Gonzales said. "I think it's still corrupt, it has been for such a long time."
"Anyway, my life is here now."
Staff Writers Nisha Gutierrez and Sang Lee, as well as The Associated Press, contributed to this story. |
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