Posted on 01/16/2006 10:57:46 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
SAN ANTONIO- The deadline for Mexico's first-ever absentee voting program for expatriates arrived Sunday with very few turning out to register, officials said.
Of an estimated 4 million eligible voters worldwide, only about 18,600 participated in the program, passed by Mexico's Congress in June to allow citizens abroad to vote in the July 2 presidential election.
While many called it a failure due for fundamental changes to get more participation, Mexican election officials insisted it was a good first step toward greater democracy.
"If this very same information had been out there for nine months, the turnout would have been different," said Pilar Alvarez of the Federal Electoral Institute, the independent government agency in Mexico which oversees elections.
Among the biggest problems, critics said, is that few expatriates had the Mexican voter ID cards _ issued only in Mexico _ required for the program.
"I feel like I am tied up, that I cannot speak up for my country to say that I am here, I have a voice," said Armando Cid, 38, of Houston, who didn't have an ID card.
Gabriela Gambino, 23, who lives in Albuquerque, N.M., but is originally from Michoacan, Mexico, cited the system's complications for not registering. She said most illegal immigrants would be leery of making the trip to Mexico for fear of deportation and traveling costs.
"I think they want to vote but a lot of them can't go," she said. "If they are already here, they don't want to risk going back."
Mexican Consulates and embassies in the United States remained open on Sunday to distribute registration forms and inform people of postal services still operating.
But the consulate in San Antonio drew only a handful of people, including the Rev. Frank Garcia of Amistad Cristiana church, a dual citizen of Mexico and the U.S.
He was unable to register for lack of a voter ID card but said he would pass out forms to his members during morning services who do have the card and still had time to mail them off.
"We want to vote so we have to make sure we exercise that right," Garcia said.
No candidates campaigned in the U.S., and the Federal Electoral Institute, or IFE, only had a reported $12 million to advertise the program.
Realizing the message wasn't penetrating many Mexican communities, volunteers across the U.S. organized voting drives in malls, flea markets, churches, banks and homes.
A group of Houston business owners organized weeks of voter drives that netted more than 1,400 registrations, they said, from their city and others in Texas. They offered to pay the roughly $9 postage for certified mail, required in the program, and give free advice on filling out forms.
But about 60 percent of those who came to their tables set up in flea markets and personal businesses had to be turned away because they didn't have the voter ID cards, said Jose Luis Rodriguez, who led the Houston group.
"There are people in Mexico who say we are not interested," he said. "That was one of the key factors for me to push for this right. We know that this can be taken away if there is a lack of interest."
Among the few to complete the registration process was Julio Cesar Aragon, 42, an immigrants-rights advocate who lives in Providence, R.I.
"This is my first time I'm going to vote in my life. I can't explain to you how happy I feel and how desperate I've been to try to make things change," the citizen of Mexico and the United States said. "I don't care for what party I vote. The thing is I get to vote."
Alvarez, the IFE official, said the system will be reviewed, but not until after a final tally of qualified absentee voters, which is expected to take two weeks.
She said it would be expensive and logistically difficult to issue voting credentials outside Mexico and still guarantee protection from fraud.
"This is the first election in this system," she said. "We haven't breached our own security, and it's still a credible system."
Roberto Rosas, a San Antonio law professor who lobbied in Mexico City for the absentee system last year, will be among those asking Mexico's Congress this year to issue the voter cards in the U.S. and abroad.
"If they only give it out in Mexico, the numbers will remain low," said Rosas, who is a consultant for Mexico's foreign affairs department. "This is a lesson so we know what to do the next time."
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AP writers Felicia Fonseca in Albuquerque, Pam Easton in Houston and Giovanna Dell'Orto in Atlanta contributed to this report.
Your estimate is way too low, Abe!
It would be interesting to know what percentage of illegals are illiterate or not sufficiently literate to handle voting.
This is not good. It probably means that the Communist Obrador gets elected.
If they want to vote in Mexico I suggest they haul ass down to Mexico and vote. If they are not legal in the USA I suggest that they keep their asses down there.
0.00465% Yep. That is pretty low. I wonder what it means.
Thought about this last night. It is a perfect example of why certain political organizations in this country need to rethink their pursuit of the aledged "hispanic" vote and get back on track with the true voters.
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