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Mexico 2006: Why Most U.S. Mexicans Won’t Be Voting

By José A. Álvarez, La Prensa San Diego

Aside from the Mexican Consulate, Maria Curry is the only other person distributing forms to Mexicans in San Diego who wish to register to vote in next year’s Mexican presidential election. However, two weeks and 550 voter registration forms later, Curry, a member of the Red México-Americana de San Diego (Mexican American Network of San Diego) says she is giving up.

“It’s a farce,” says Curry, referring to the Mexican Federal Electoral Institute’s (IFE) efforts to register Mexicans living abroad to vote in the July 2006 presidential election. “There’s no information coming from Mexico. If the people are not informed, how are they supposed to vote?”

Curry and her newly formed organization wanted to help Mexican nationals in the San Diego area register to vote. Encouraged by fact that Mexicans abroad would be able to vote in their country’s elections for the first time, Curry went to Tijuana, picked up 600 forms, and began to distribute them in supermarkets, bakeries and locations in Logan Heights and other communities. When representatives from the IFE contacted her two weeks ago, Curry went through the certification process that would allow her to distribute 3,000 additional forms.

The forms are ready to be picked up at the Mexican Consulate in San Diego and that’s where they will stay.

“I will be sending the IFE an email letting them know I won’t be picking them up. It’s a waste of my time and energy,” said Curry, adding that the way the IFE is promoting the vote abroad is “shameful.”

Three months ago, the IFE established a special commission that would be in charge of informing Mexicans living abroad about their right to vote and the process to register. The first step was to make the application forms available throughout Mexican consulates and embassies around the world, a process that began Oct.1 and will go on until Jan. 15, 2006.

A media campaign encouraging Mexicans to register to vote followed, including radio, television and newspaper ads. The campaign even includes the participation of popular singers such as Los Tigres del Norte and Ramón Ayala. However, the message appears to be falling upon deaf ears.

According to figures provided by the IFE, more than two million registration forms are available worldwide. As of Oct. 28, however, the Mexican consulates had only distributed 132,513 forms. An additional 3,855 forms were obtained from the IFE’s web site at www.ife.org .mx. The Mexican Consulate in San Diego received 27,550 registration forms from Mexico, of which only 860 had been distributed.

The low interest is not surprising to Dr. Todd Eisenstadt, a visiting fellow at the Center for U.S.-Mexico Studies at the University of California-San Diego and a political science professor at American University in Washington, D.C.

“The media anticipated a greater response (but) it’s not going to be a big deal even when all the votes are in,” says Eisenstadt, a Mexican politics expert. “It’s a positive thing but not as important as it’s being depicted. The effect on the election will not be great.”

The problem, Eisenstadt points out, is that absentee voters from countries that allow their citizens to vote from abroad tend to vote in very low numbers, usually fewer than10 percent. It is estimated that of the more than 11 million Mexicans living abroad, only four million have a voter identification card, a requirement that leaves out millions of potential Mexican voters, who reside in the United States illegally. This could mean that only about 400,000 votes will be cast in the 2006 election.

According to Eisenstadt, more interest could be generated if the election was more heavily publicized and the parties were allowed to campaign here. However, he says, while access to the ballots is not easy, “people who really want to vote will do it.”

The IFE also said it would request the help of organizations and coalitions to help distribute the forms. So far, 47 organizations from around the world —most of them in the United States—have been approved by the IFE and have been provided with a total of 55,200 applications to distribute. Organizations wishing to help distribute voter registration forms can contact the IFE by email at cove@ife.org.mx.

After waiting for about three weeks, Christian Ramirez from American Friends Service Committee, an immigrant rights organization, was finally able to set up a meeting with an IFE representative to discuss his organization’s desire to help out. A meeting was scheduled to take place last week, but the IFE representative fell ill and the meeting had to be cancelled. Ramirez says he is still waiting to get his hands on the registration forms.

“The information is not there. There hasn’t been a plan of action from the IFE. They just keep passing the ball,” said Ramirez, who believes meetings with community organizations should have taken place before the distribution of forms began. “It’s the IFE’s responsibility to make sure the information is available. The parties should also be advocating for an easier process and that has not happened.”

Meanwhile, many voter registration forms that were mailed to Mexico are being returned because they were not sent by certified mail. “The IFE’s bureaucracy is horrible,” says Curry.