In the months leading up to the July 2018 election where Andrés Manuel López Obrador was elected president, Víctor Luna, a Mexican citizen who lives in Brooklyn, got stuck on the virtual page of the voter registration system.
Calculating that the problem had been the expiration of his credential, this year he approached the procedures window of the Mexican Consulate in New York City because “I don’t want the same thing to happen to me,” he says outside that office to which He came to renew in time the credential that in Mexico is known as “INE.”
There should be “no justifications for all Mexicans who live abroad to stop exercising the right to vote,” said Jorge Islas López, consul general of Mexico in New York, who also deploys all the resources that the Mexican government has made available. available to those who live outside the country.
“The first great innovation is that for the first time in history there will be in-person voting abroad; In the 23 Consulates with the highest demographic density of Mexicans (New York included), a polling station will be installed “where those over 18 years of age” who have a voter ID card and who have registered will be able to go on June 2 to cast their vote. vote”.
Via telephone from Mexico, where he is on a work tour, Islas López recalls that the vote can also be cast by postal mail, “for people who live very far north of the state” and “there is also the option of electronic voting via internet” which this year includes the novelty of voting for president.
Those who turned 18 or will do so before election day are those who have the right to process this essential credential to exercise democracy in Mexico. To obtain this and other documents, Consulmex generally asks interested parties to make an appointment, but that requirement has been canceled for the moment, seeking to encourage as many people as possible to obtain the card, register and vote in the spring.
To obtain “the INE” the interested party must bring:
- A) A document proving Mexican nationality, birth certificate preferably.
- b) A photo identification such as a passport or Consular Registration Card; and
- C) Proof of address whose address matches that stated in the application.
Carrying out this procedure, by the way, has no cost.
Once you have the credential, you must go to the website of the National Electoral Institute, INE (https://votoextranjero.ine.mx/) open until February 20 for the registration of those who will vote outside of Mexico. As after carrying out the process for the credential, the institution in charge of issuing it takes between 2 to 5 weeks to send it to the home of the interested party, hence the “urgent” condition so that those interested in voting come no later than Monday, 22 January to complete your procedure.
Julio Damián arrived in New York directly from Puebla almost 20 years ago. This year will be the first time he goes to vote. “I didn’t even know what the INE thing was, but recently I saw that on Facebook someone was reporting that you could get your credential and vote from here, so I decided,” he said while waiting for a call from a window to complete the process. Damián hopes that his credential arrives in time to complete the other part of the registration. “It is important to keep pushing to move this forward,” he says when asked about the importance of voting.
On Sunday, June 2, Mexico will vote to renew the positions of President of the Republic, Senators, Governors and federal and local Deputies. “It will be the largest election in the history of Mexico in terms of the number of popularly elected positions that are at stake,” clarified Consul Islas López.
For Julio Damián, who arrived from Puebla 20 years ago, this will be the first time he goes to vote. Credit: Juan Alberto Vázquez | Courtesy
Morena’s second round against opposition
Unless something unexpected happens, on Sunday, August 2, a woman will be elected in Mexico who, starting December 1, will lead the country’s destinies for the 6 years mandated by the Mexican Constitution.
The electoral dispute will take place between the official candidate of the National Regeneration Movement, MORENA, the doctor in physics Claudia Sheinbaum who, according to the most recent polls, should have no problems defeating her closest pursuer, Senator Xóchitl Gálvez, candidate of a coalition of the center-right parties PRI, PAN and PRD, brought together under the Broad Front for Mexico (FAM) brand.
Since her previous assignment, Sheinbaum, built a solid candidacy through the public position with the greatest relevance and spotlight in the country: that of head of Government of Mexico City, the country’s capital. After touring the country on weekends, and for almost two years, on September 6, he won the poll of MORENA militants against another strong candidate, former Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, who since then came into conflict with the party leadership by denouncing that the process had been “inequitable.”
For his part, Gálvez was displacing other pre-candidates in the FAM who reached the signatures required to compete in the final poll: Senator Santiago Creel of the National Action Party, PAN, as well as Beatriz Paredes and Enrique de la Madrid of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI.
After a promising start to her candidacy, Senator Gálvez appears to have been losing ground due to mistakes made in her campaign. She, who arrived to the senate sessions on a bicycle, has sold her Otomi indigenous past, surrounded by poverty and her subsequent emancipation that led her to become an engineer, businesswoman and official in the government of Vicente Fox (2000-2006) where she served. charge of the Commission on Indigenous Affairs. After a brief stint as a delegate of the conservative Miguel Hidalgo Delegation in the country’s capital, in 2018 she was elected senator for the PAN.
Also in the competition, defending the colors of the Citizen Movement, is Jorge Álvarez Máynez, a young deputy who replaced the governor of Nuevo León, Samuel García, who had to withdraw from the presidential race at the last minute for not meeting the requirements. . No one sees any chance for this new candidate and the only thing that remains is the doubt as to which of the two candidates will be able to take away the most votes.
The election comes to New York
More than half a million Mexican citizens abroad will be able to vote in this next election.
After the aggressive day of credentialing, it is expected that this last figure will exceed 600 thousand, which gives the vote of Mexicans abroad the same magnitude as that of small states such as Campeche or Colima.
Although New York is home to mainly Mexicans from the state of Puebla, throughout the United States the states that provide the greatest number of citizens with credentials, ready to vote, are Jalisco, Michoacán and Mexico City.
There are Mexican citizens ready to vote all over the world. However, 97% of those who live abroad and appear on the electoral roll live in the United States. The consulate in New York is the fifth in the nation with the most registered countrymen behind Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago and Houston. From this Consulate headed by Jorge Islas López, more than 60 thousand credentials have been issued to vote in this electoral cycle, according to data from the INE.
For this innovation of in-person voting, Consul Jorge Islas López clarifies that the office in his charge “will only and exclusively offer the physical space but will not participate in the organization, nor in the installation or development of the electoral day” tasks that correspond to him to the INE by constitutional mandate.
Finally, remembering that the Consulate has mobile units and extended hours, the Consul invited Mexicans in New York not to miss this opportunity: “It is vital for the nation and the following generations that we vote in these elections that will determine the future of the public system in Mexico”.
Mobile Consulates from Tuesday the 16th to Saturday the 20th, from 9 AM to 1:30 PM
- Riverfront Library. 1 Larkin Center. Yonkers, NY, 10701.
- Little Mexico Restaurant. 3253 Horseblock Road. Medford, NY, 11763.
Mobile consulates from Tuesday, January 23 to Saturday, January 27 from 9 AM to 1:30 PM
- Ministry of Evangelical Churches Power of the Potter. 3000 Coney Island Ave. Brooklyn, NY, 11235.
- Centro Cristiano Renacer. 70 South Hamilton. Poughkeepsie, NY, 12601.
2024-01-18 11:00:00
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