Mexico's electoral institute will use a 21-hour show on U.S. television on Wednesday to convince more Mexicans living north of the border to vote in next year's presidential election. The television show will be broadcast by Spanish-language network Univision in 24 U.S. cities, including New York; Miami, Florida; Houston, Texas; and Los Angeles, California. During the show Mexican electoral officials will answer questions phoned in by viewers on how to vote from outside Mexico."And don't forget to send those remittances!"
In June, Mexico's Congress voted to allow mail-in ballots from outside Mexico, something migrant groups had demanded for years. The July election will be the first time Mexicans living abroad will be allowed to cast absentee ballots, but as of November 22, only a little over 2,000 of 11 million Mexicans living outside their country had applied to mail in their vote. Potential absentee ballot voters have until January 15 to mail in registration forms, which can be found on the electoral institute's Web site and at Mexican consulates in the United States and other countries.
Government officials estimate that 98 percent of the 11 million Mexicans living abroad reside in the United States. About 4 million of those are believed to be registered voters. Absentee ballots will be used only for the presidential election.