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Mexicans in U.S. turn back on presidential vote at home
Thu Jan 12, 2006 1:57 PM ET

By Tim Gaynor

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - Millions of Mexican immigrants in the United States are turning their backs on their homeland's July presidential election, condemning to failure a bid to give expatriates the vote for the first time.

With just days to go until the January 15 cut off date, only some 15,000 people, or around one-third of one percent of those eligible, have registered, Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute said on Thursday.

The complex process, and fears that illegal immigrants might give themselves away, have turned them off registering for the election to replace President Vicente Fox.

"It's the first time the government has tried this, and they have got it wrong," Mexican shop worker Liliana Esparza said as she tended a gift stall in a bustling mall in San Antonio, Texas, home to many Hispanics.

The estimated 11 million Mexicans in the United States sent home some $20 billion to help their families last year and are increasingly influential in U.S. business and politics.

The Mexican Congress approved a bill last June giving some 4.2 million foreign-resident Mexicans with voting credentials the right to take part in the polling.

Activists had predicted that some 500,000 of them would come forward and claim their right for the July 2 vote.

But the registration process, which requires would-be voters to pay $8 to mail in a copy of their voting card, together with proof of foreign residency has left a lot of immigrants cold. The vote from abroad will be by mail.

"I might have voted if I could have done it over the Internet, but as it is, the process is just too complicated. I'm not going to bother," Esparza added with a shrug.

Other Mexican immigrants in the San Antonio area, which has a hefty expatriate population of construction, restaurant and ranch workers, said they had stopped following events back home and had no intention of voting.

"A lot of us come here to make a new start, and quit thinking about going back," said builder Santiago Lopez as he sat on a bench opposite the historic Alamo fort. "We don't even think about what's going on in Mexico."

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS SIDELINED

Despite their lack of interest in Mexican politics, the immigrants still have close family ties to Mexico and cling to their culture. Many speak "pocho," a hybrid slang that mixes English and Spanish.

In a bid to drum up support for the program in recent months, Mexico's electoral watchdog dispatched officials to register an estimated 1.5 million Mexicans returning for Christmas at international airports and busy border crossings to Mexico in the U.S. southwest.

It also dipped into a $100-million war chest to buy spots on Hispanic TV and radio in U.S. cities that have a hefty Mexican population, backed by artists like Tex-Mex combo Los Tigres del Norte and top soccer club Chivas USA.

But the stringent voting requirements were a barrier for undocumented Mexicans concerned about being caught.

"Illegal immigrants are afraid to send in personal data as they can't be sure in whose hands it will end up ... and this may well have had an impact," Mexico City-based political analyst Jorge Chabat said.

Lawmakers also stipulated that aspiring voters without electoral cards had to apply for them in person in Mexico -- a round-trip journey that is unfeasible for undocumented immigrants.

But while conceding that the registration drive was limited by some of its requirements, Mexico's IFE electoral institute says it has done all it could in the circumstances, and is satisfied with the results.

"It's a very important step for Mexican democracy, irrespective of participation," said Patricio Ballados, the institute's expatriate vote coordinator.

The election looks like being a tight race. Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador leads opinion polls by some 10 points but analysts say Felipe Calderon from Fox's National Action Party and Roberto Madrazo from the main opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party will begin to win ground.