Election officials say thousands of North Texans weren鈥檛 able to vote in Mexico鈥檚 historic election because of a large voter turnout 鈥� and because many people didn鈥檛 pre-register.
On Sunday, Mexico elected its first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, a member of Morena, the same party as current President Andr茅s Manuel L贸pez 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.
鈥淚 think [election officials] were influenced,鈥� he said, adding that he thought the governing party didn鈥檛 want a large turnout of voters who would vote for the opposition. 鈥淚t鈥檚 clear to me there was fraud.鈥�
Election officials say the issue was a combination of factors.
Diego Eduardo Espinoza Blancas is with the National Electoral Institute 鈥� 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鈥檛 pre-registered could vote.
Those eligible to vote were given the choice of voting by mail, online or in person.
鈥淣evertheless, there was a large response from the Mexican community. We recorded 4,000 people in line,鈥� Espinoza Blancas said. 鈥淏ut we had to close the voting areas by 7:30 pm.鈥�
He said people in line were told about the situation.
鈥淢any people stayed in line waiting for a spot to open up,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut it wasn鈥檛 possible. There was a huge demand.鈥�
In addition to choosing the next president, voters also selected 628 members of Congress in Sunday鈥檚 election.
Ortiz Alvarado said that despite the reasons for voting failures, Mexican officials should have been more prepared for this historic election.
Got a tip? Email Stella M. Ch谩vez at schavez@kera.org. You can follow Stella on Twitter .
四虎影院 is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider today. Thank you.
