EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Manuel Rascon at first flinched at the thought of a woman calling the shots in his beloved Mexico. But then he said he’s willing to give her a chance.
“It is strange because there’s never been a woman president in Mexico, only men. […] Let’s hope we fare well. We hope this is a change for the better,” Rascon said on Friday as he came out of the Mexican Consulate in El Paso.
Mexico is holding a presidential election on June 2, and the candidates of both multiparty coalitions are women – Claudia Sheinbaum and Xochitl Galvez. The lone male candidate from a smaller party is polling in single digits. Political analysts in the U.S. said there’s a 99.9 percent chance Sheinbaum or Galvez next year will be doing business with Joe Biden, Donald Trump or whoever ends up in the White House.
Left, Congresswoman Xochitl Galvez, an opposition presidential hopeful, greets supporters as she arrives to register her name as a candidate, in Mexico City, Tuesday, July 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano). Right, former Mexico City mayor and presidential candidate for the Morena party, Claudia Sheinbaum, greets supporters during a rally in Guadalajara, Jalisco state, Mexico on July 9, 2023. (Photo by ULISES RUIZ/AFP via Getty Images)
Interest in the election is high, say Mexican officials spearheading a voting registration drive among Mexicans living in the United States. More than 33,000 voted from abroad in the last federal elections in 2021, according to the National Elections Institute, or INE.
“Many of these people that are going to participate in this electoral process have a lot of family living in Mexico being impacted by Mexico’s government. They have the right to decide and, obviously, they want to participate,” said Ricardo Hernandez Lacanda, deputy Mexican consul in El Paso.
The Pew Center estimates that 37.2 million Hispanics of Mexican descent live in the United States. But the ties go beyond heritage. Mexicans living abroad last year sent $61 billion to relatives in the homeland, with most of that money coming from the United States, according to the World Bank. Remittances, oil exports and income from tourism are Mexico’s principal sources of revenue.
The consulate this Saturday will host a voter registration fair a 910 E. San Antonio Ave. ahead of a Feb. 20 deadline set by INE. Other consulates in California, Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, New York state and other places have been promoting voter registration as well.
Hernandez said the consulate is only a sort of middleman in the process; INE will evaluate each registration, issue the cards and mail them directly to those approved. Requisites are simple, he said: A Mexican birth certificate, proof of physical address and an official government ID such as a passport. Those who get voter ID cards will be able to vote by mail or through a secure online portal, he said.
Maria, a young mother living in El Paso, on Friday, stepped out of the consulate after beginning the process of securing a voter ID. She’s aware the next president of Mexico likely will be a woman.
“It is good. We all have equal rights. Gender doesn’t matter,” Maria said.
Read: Read More