Election officials say thousands of North Texans weren’t able to vote in Mexico’s historic election because of a large voter turnout – and because many people didn’t pre-register.
On Sunday, Mexico elected its first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, a member of Morena, the same party as current President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
About 4,000 people stood in line waiting to cast their ballot, some more than 12 hours and others who began lining up well before sunrise.
Tereso Ortiz Alvarado, president and founder of Casa Guanajuato in Dallas, said he waited in line about six hours and ultimately had to leave before being able to vote.
“I think [election officials] were influenced,” he said, adding that he thought the governing party didn’t want a large turnout of voters who would vote for the opposition. “It’s clear to me there was fraud.”
Election officials say the issue was a combination of factors.
Diego Eduardo Espinoza Blancas is with the National Electoral Institute – known as INE.
He said only 968 people registered to vote in Dallas, far fewer than turned out on Sunday. So INE added 1,500 spots so those who hadn’t pre-registered could vote.
Those eligible to vote were given the choice of voting by mail, online or in person.
“Nevertheless, there was a large response from the Mexican community. We recorded 4,000 people in line,” Espinoza Blancas said. “But we had to close the voting areas by 7:30 pm.”
He said people in line were told about the situation.
“Many people stayed in line waiting for a spot to open up,” he said. “But it wasn’t possible. There was a huge demand.”
In addition to choosing the next president, voters also selected 628 members of Congress in Sunday’s election.
Ortiz Alvarado said that despite the reasons for voting failures, Mexican officials should have been more prepared for this historic election.
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