Thread: Low Registration in U.S. for Mexican Vote

Low Registration in U.S. for Mexican Vote
By ABE LEVY, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 22 minutes ago



SAN ANTONIO - A fraction of the eligible voters registered for their first chance to vote by absentee ballot in Mexico's presidential election, authorities said Sunday.

ADVERTISEMENT

Voting advocates said the low registration demonstrated a need for fundamental changes to the program, but election officials called it 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 which oversees elections in Mexico.

The expatriate voting law was passed last summer by Mexico's Congress, and allows citizens abroad to vote in the July 2 presidential election. Citizens were given until Sunday to apply for an absentee ballot.

But of an estimated 4 million eligible voters worldwide, Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute said only about 18,600 participated.

Among the biggest problems, critics said, was the required voter ID cards were issued only in Mexico.

"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, said most illegal immigrants would be leery of making the trip to Mexico to obtain cards because of travel costs and fear they would not be able to return to this country.

"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."

The Mexican Embassy and consulates in the United States remained open on Sunday to distribute registration forms.

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 United States. He couldn't register for lack of a voter ID card but said he passed out forms to congregation members who do have cards.

Volunteers across the United States also had organized voting drives in malls, flea markets, churches, banks and homes.

A group of Houston business owners organized weeks of voter drives that they said netted more than 1,400 registrations in Texas. They offered free advice on filling out forms along with the roughly $9 postage for the necessary certified mail.

However, about 60 percent of the people who showed interest had to be turned away because they didn't have 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."

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," said Aragon, who has dual U.S.-Mexican citizenship. "I don't care for what party I vote. The thing is I get to vote."

Alvarez, the official from Mexico's election agency, said it would be expensive and logistically difficult to issue voting credentials outside Mexico and still guarantee protection from fraud.

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 voter cards in the U.S. and elsewhere.

"If they only give it out in Mexico, the numbers will remain low," said Rosas, a consultant for Mexico's foreign affairs department. "This is a lesson so we know what to do the next time."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060115/ap_ ... ate_voting

But of an estimated 4 million eligible voters worldwide, Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute said only about 18,600 participated.

whats that 1 in every 215 ?