Millions of people will cast ballots on Sunday to choose the nation's next president for a six-year term, including thousands of foreign voters. Based on all the signs, Mexico will select a female president for the first time.
Numerous candidates have been assassinated nationwide throughout the hectic campaign season, which is coming up to what is being termed the greatest election in Mexico's history. An adviser to a candidate for mayor of Tecate was shot and killed on Monday.
Thousands of police will be stationed throughout the state on election day to ensure the safety of voters and candidates in Baja California, which elected seven mayors for the first time, including one in Tijuana.
Additionally, it will be the first general election in which Mexican consulates overseas, including the one in San Diego, would accept in-person votes.
That’s where Chula Vista resident Valentín Ramírez, 54, will be lining up Sunday.
“It’s going to be special,” said Ramírez, a Hidalgo native who came to the country 31 years ago in search of a better life. Ramírez, a hotel worker and community organizer, said he will vote for the family he still has living in Mexico.
He never voted in his years in Mexico, so this will be a first for him.
The National Electoral Institute, or INE, the independent organization in charge of elections in Mexico, reports that about 225,000 Mexicans residing overseas registered to vote in the general election.
Most will still vote online or by mail, with only 7 percent registered to vote in person.
Of the twenty Mexican consulates in the United States that allow in-person voting, five hundred had registered in San Diego. As long as they have appropriate voter credentials, the first 1,500 voters who are either outside their electoral region or did not register to vote while abroad will also have access to additional ballots at the Little Italy polling location. Polls in San Diego will operate on the same hours as those in Mexico City, opening at 7 a.m. and closing at 5 p.m.
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