Singing the cute little sky To appease the anger and clinging to their right to decide the future of Mexico from a distance, this is how the thousands of Mexicans who tried to vote in the United States spent the elections, subjected to the lack of foresight of the INE.
Throughout the day, in the twenty consulates open to vote in the US, the same scene was repeated: enormous lines that went around the block of citizens who wanted to cast their vote.
Lines that continued after the polls closed, as there were hundreds who could not vote, despite spending more than eight or nine hours waiting.
One of them is María Irais Gutiérrez, from Chiapas, who spent 10 hours waiting in line at the Washington DC consulate and stayed at the door, unable to enter: “All day no one has told us that we were not going to arrive. “I feel frustrated and angry because one comes happy to vote because it is our right and after waiting for so long it is courageous not to do it,” she told EFEamid the boos of people angry for not voting.
Verónica González, from Guadalajara, was one of the last to be able to enter the consulate, which closed at 8:00 p.m. (local time), after 10 hours of waiting.
“I think hope dies last. “I want change in my country and that is why I have waited so long,” she explained. The best thing about the day, in addition to being able to vote, is having met many compatriots with whom she shared the wait.
Read: INE asks parties and candidates for serenity and to wait for official results
In the early hours of the day, people applauded those who came out, with their thumbs up, victorious for having voted. They also sang rancheras. In Washington there were songs by Pedro Infante and Jorge Negrete, in chorus, cute little sky and Mexico Beautiful and belovedto liven up the time.
In Los Angeles they also started the day applauding and waving Mexican flags, but as the hours went by people showed more and more anger and began to shout to let them pass.
María, 55 years old, took four hours to vote: “We are very dissatisfied, we deserve more organization to avoid all this waste of time. They told us that we could come early and that we would leave quickly but I think they didn’t think about the big call because there are a lot of people,” she complained.
First time voting in person abroad on election day
This was the first time that citizens were able to vote in person abroad on the same day of the elections, the largest in history, with 97 million people called to the polls. That is why many opted for this option, instead of prior voting by email.
What was the main problem throughout the day? The first was the lack of organization when it came to lining up and dividing registered voters from unregistered voters, as many of those present complained.
The second, the slowness and complexity of the electronic voting system, with tablets as the only option to vote.
“The voting that is carried out in the consulates is not through a printed ballot and a ballot box, but in electronic ballot boxes that imply that citizens have to be using an electronic device and most of those who have come are older adults who They lack those digital skills,” commented Leobardo Mendoza, INE liaison in Los Angeles.
With three hours to go before the closing of the nine voting stations installed at the Los Angeles consulate, where 1,362 people were registered to vote, only 544 had voted and “200 or 300 more” were expected to vote, Mendoza said.
In Washington, with half an hour left before the closing of this consulate, which only had five tables installed, 640 people had voted, 255 who had already registered and 385 who were not registered, according to data from the INE.
That was another of the problems, that the population was encouraged to go to vote despite not being registered and the turnout ended up being much greater than expected, there were not enough polling stations and the consulates were overwhelmed.
According to the INE, 258,461 people could vote from abroad in these elections, the majority residing in the United States. Outside the country, there are only three operational consulates where voting could be done today: Madrid, Paris and Montreal.
With information from EFE
