In June
2005, following controversy and debate lasting almost ten years, the Mexican Congress
finally approved a reform to the electoral law allowing Mexicans to vote from abroad.
This was to be possible for the first time during the national elections of
July 2006. External voting applied only to presidential elections and was by
post only.
Historical
background
The need to
give citizens the right to exercise their right to vote from abroad and make it
possible for them to do so cannot be explained without taking into account the existence
of one of the largest, most persistent and most focused international migrant movements
in the world—that of the millions of Mexicans who go to the United States, mainly
to work. Certainly, not all the Mexicans residing permanently or temporarily abroad
have migrated for work, nor are they concentrated in the United States only, but,
not surprisingly, one of the main drivers for achieving the right to vote
abroad has been the organization and mobilization capacity of several groups of
Mexicans living in the USA, who were gradually joined by political forces,
social movements and opinion leaders from Mexico.
For many
years different voices had been asking for a debate about and for the introduction
of a law to give Mexicans living abroad the right to an external vote, but it was
only in 1996 that this demand was really met and the first juridical and
institutional steps were taken to allow for this possibility to be realized.
That year, as part of a large package of electoral reforms, a provision in the
constitution which prevented voting from abroad was removed and a series of
requirements were established in order for the Congress to provide the final
ruling on this matter. Defining the arrangements for external voting took
almost a decade.
The
subject of heated debate
The
decision-making process was very complex and lengthy. Although the electoral authority
and different stakeholders worked hard and well to promote an informed debate
on the basis of sound facts and figures (including holding the first
international seminars to assess the issue in comparative perspective), it was
not easy for the political parties represented in the parliament to reach the
agreements needed in order to pass a bill. The debate evolved in different
stages. At first, the appropriateness of allowing citizens to vote when they
were not resident in the country was the subject of controversy. Once the main
objections in this regard had been overcome, the debate centred on evaluating
the available alternative mechanisms and defining the most suitable method to
guarantee that voting from abroad would preserve the essential attributes of
the electoral regime that has been built up and strengthened in Mexico
in recent years. Finally, the assessments focused on the cost-effectiveness of
the operational options available.
The debate
about preserving the main attributes of the electoral system when designing any
external voting mechanism was critical. A fundamental reform process had taken
place in Mexico
during the late 1980s in order to deal with the serious lack of public
confidence in elections and their credibility. This reform radically changed
both the characteristics of the electoral organization and the conditions of
the electoral contest. The legislation gradually incorporated several devices
to guarantee the integrity and transparency of the organization and management
of the electoral process, as well as equity and accountability in the electoral
contest. During the debates over external voting, it was agreed that these were
essential features of the Mexican electoral system that would be extremely
difficult to replicate abroad.
There was
also the question of the numbers of Mexicans residing abroad who would be
entitled to an external vote. In late 1998, a commission of experts set up by
the Federal Electoral Institute (Instituto Federal Electoral, or IFE, the autonomous
organization responsible for managing federal elections) presented a report on
this issue which made proposals for external voting by Mexicans. According to
the report, an estimated 9.9 million
Mexicans residing abroad would be entitled to vote—at the time equivalent to 15
per cent of the total number of citizens registered to vote in the country. Of
those 9.9 million, 98.7 per cent, or almost 9.8 million, were in the United States.
These estimates showed clearly the extent of the challenge, which up to this
point had been the subject of much speculation. But they also provided some
candidates with fuel for speculation about the possible effects of the external
vote on the outcome of elections.
Although
the 1996 reform of external voting was brought in with the intention of having
it in place for the presidential elections of 2000, lack of agreement between
the main political forces with parliamentary representation prevented the
Congress from making any decision on the regulation and implementation of
external voting before these elections. Nevertheless, the issue had then been
settled as a priority item on the agenda of the political and legislative
debate. Between 1998 and 2004, the executive branch along with legislators from
different parliamentary groups presented almost 20 bills on external voting to
the Congress. Some of the bills presented in the framework of the mid-term
elections of 2003 advocated extending external voting to elections for deputies
and senators, as well as presidential elections, and even the creation of a
special electoral district that would guarantee parliamentary representation
for citizens residing abroad. Again, lack of agreement among the different
parliamentary forces prevented any final definition, and the target date for
implementation was put back to the federal elections of July 2006.
By the end
of June 2005, just before the deadline for approving legal reforms that would
be implemented during the July 2006 federal elections, the Congress finally approved
a mechanism enabling Mexicans residing abroad to vote, but only for presidential
elections. After assessing different alternatives, the Congress opted for postal
voting, which is a major innovation for the Mexican electoral system, since every
election that takes place within the country entails the voter’s appearing in
person at the polling site.
Voter
registration
To be able
to cast a vote from abroad, Mexican citizens residing in a foreign country must
have a photographic voting card, which is issued free of charge by the IFE in Mexico,
and then send a written request by registered post to be included in a special register
of Mexican voters abroad. The photographic voting card requirement became the
target for all the criticism of the external voting arrangements, since many
Mexicans residing abroad do not have it, and it is only possible to get one in
person within the national territory. For citizens who fulfilled this
requirement, a period of three and a half months was established during which
they could request registration, by post, using the official forms designed by
the IFE (for
the July 2006 election this period was from 1 October 2005 to 15 January 2006).
An additional term of one month (up to 15 February) was established before the
register of external electors was closed, in order to allow all applications in
transit to be received or to allow the interested parties to correct any
omission or error in requests that had been sent at the proper time.
To promote
the external vote, the IFE
worked with the collaboration of the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs, by means
of its 139 diplomatic representations, and also with the assistance of a wide
array of social organizations of Mexicans abroad, to inform citizens abroad of
their right to an external vote and of the mechanisms for registering and polling.
All voters enrolled abroad are temporarily removed from the national electoral register
but are automatically reinstated when the relevant election is over.
The
voting and the election campaign
External
voting is by post only. The IFE has to send (by registered post) the documents required
to cast a vote to all citizens fulfilling the requirements to be registered as
voters abroad, no later than 20 May of the election year.
The
counting of all votes cast abroad is carried out in one national centre in Mexico,
simultaneously with the counting of the votes cast within the country, that is,
starting at 18:00 on polling day. In order for the postal votes cast abroad to
be included in the count, the electoral authority must receive them one day
before the beginning of polling.
To
guarantee equity during the electoral process and to protect the control mechanisms
for the funding and financial oversight of political parties and campaigns, the
mechanism approved by the Congress bans any kind of campaign activity abroad by
the parties and candidates. Therefore, and in order to enable voters abroad to
cast an informed and reasoned vote, the IFE agreed with the different parties
on the creation of a comprehensive electoral kit that included detailed information
on the platforms and programmes of the different presidential candidates, and
this was distributed to all registered voters abroad along with the official
documents required to vote.
Take-up
and costs of external voting
For the
preliminary arrangements and the initial setting up of the external voting
mechanism, the IFE
invested around 119.3 million pesos (MXN—c. 10.8 million US dollars
(USD) at a rate of exchange of 11 MXN = 1 USD) during 2005. For the
implementation phase throughout 2006, it devoted another 186 million MXN (16.9
million USD), making an estimated overall cost of 305 million MXN (c.
27.7 million USD).
According
to reliable estimates, the voting-age Mexican population residing abroad on a
permanent basis is currently up to 11 million. Moreover, the IFE estimates that around 4.2 million
Mexicans residing abroad have a valid photographic voting card. The combination
of these two factors created high expectations that the register of external
electors would be massive. However, only 40,876 Mexicans abroad finally
registered for the July 2006 elections. Of those, only 32,632 (80 per cent)
returned the envelopes with their marked ballot papers in time to be included
in the official count of votes cast abroad. Certainly, time constraints, the
inherent difficulty of reaching all Mexicans abroad who were entitled to vote
and get information to them on time, the innovative approach adopted to
registration and voting from abroad, and the strict eligibility criteria
established all help to explain this low figure.
Accordingly,
and because the external voting mechanisms have to be reviewed and improved,
the first Mexican experience, like that of many other countries, indicates the
need for more detailed research and a more integrated assessment in order to
determine the factors that underlie its political culture and which can in turn
be helpful to efforts to encourage voter turnout.
