Wtf??????

[Delw]

this cant be serious

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1215voting.html

Mexico may set up voting booths in U.S.
Bill letting emigrants cast ballots in nation's elections nears passage

Chris Hawley
Republic Mexico City Bureau
Dec. 15, 2004 12:00 AM

MEXICO CITY - For the first time, Mexicans would be able to vote in the United States for the president of Mexico under a bill nearing approval in that country's House of Representatives.

If the measure becomes law, it will likely set off a fierce battle for millions of potential voters in Arizona and other states and will allow Mexican presidential candidates to campaign in the United States.

Mexicans would be able to register to vote in the United States and cast their ballots at polling stations, probably set up in consulates around the country. advertisement




"This is a historic effort to allow Mexicans living abroad to recover their rights," said Laura Elena Martínez Rivera of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, who wrote the bill. "This will allow people who have left for abroad to have a role in improving the lives of the families they have left behind."

But the logistics and details of the proposal are uncertain even with considerable funding and political backing.

The final bill emerged Tuesday, the last day of the legislative session, after a week of intense negotiation and lobbying by activist groups from the United States. It was approved unanimously Tuesday by the House Government and Migrant Affairs committees and will go to a vote after Congress reconvenes on Feb. 1. The measure still needs to be approved by the Senate and signed into law by President Vicente Fox, but its passage seems ensured. During a committee meeting, representatives from all of Mexico's political parties pledged their support.

Currently, there is no absentee voting for Mexicans who leave the country, and any Mexicans who wish to vote must return to Mexico to cast a ballot.

The proposed measure is a big gamble for the country's three main parties because none is sure whom Mexican emigrants would favor in the 2006 election.

Mexicans living in Arizona say they have mixed feelings about the measure.

Sonora native Roberto Sanchez Garcia says Mexicans who leave the country shouldn't be able to vote.

"If you don't live in the country, I don't think you should have the right to make decisions on who runs the country," said Sanchez Garcia, 37, a south Phoenix resident.



Jerry Martin Del Campo disagrees. The Guadalajara native said he left Mexico partly because he didn't think he had a political voice there.

"The main reason why we're all here is because of the Mexican government, the abuse," said Del Campo, who lives in the northwest Valley. "So we ran away. This is a good idea."

The bill goes well beyond a measure proposed by Fox in June. It would have limited voting to five cities: Phoenix, Dallas, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

The final bill also calls for the Federal Elections Institute to open temporary offices in the United States to register voters and run the voting. Candidates would be allowed to campaign but could not hold mass rallies or buy advertising in U.S. media. Fox's plan would have barred all campaigning in the United States.

Voters would have to cast their ballots in person. Electoral officials would have to set up one voting station for every 15,000 Mexicans in the United States.

But the bill is vague on many details. No one is sure how many Mexicans live in the United States, although some estimates put it at far more than 10 million, making it difficult to estimate the cost of the program or how many polling stations would be needed. Lawmakers have earmarked $17.5 million to start with but acknowledged they would probably have to spend more.

And the logistics could be daunting. Elections officials would have to secure U.S. visas to work in the United States and perhaps arrange for security at polling stations.

Much is at stake for Mexico's political parties, which admit they are uncertain how emigrants would vote.

"The emigrants could be a decisive factor if we see a close race in 2006," said Heliodoro Díaz, a PRI member of the Population and Migrant Affairs Committee. "Or it could be that they don't feel involved with Mexico and won't feel like voting, or that only 200,000 or so will vote and it won't be decisive."

Fox's National Action Party, or PAN, is hoping the new crop of voters are Americanized, steeped in U.S. ideals of free enterprise and open to Fox's plans for privatizing state industries. The party will likely be looking for supporters in Arizona, Texas and other border states, said Rodrigo Ivan Cortés, head of the party's committee for sovereignty issues.

The PRI, which ruled Mexico for 71 years before Fox's victory in 2000, is looking for recent emigrants, people disillusioned with Fox's government who still have firm ties to their hometowns in the PRI's southern strongholds. Their biggest target is probably New York City, where many people from Puebla, Oaxaca and Chiapas states have settled.

"The PRI is going to look good with the emigrants abroad," said Al Rojas, national coordinator for the National Campaign for the Absentee vote. The leftist Popular Democratic Party has been fighting to get emigrants the vote since 1988, and it will be looking for some gratitude, especially in places like California and Chicago, where it has footholds.

The bill is a recognition of the immense economic power wielded by emigrants in Arizona and other U.S. states. Those emigrants send back about $13 billion a year to Mexico, money that keeps many small villages alive, smooths over the rough spots in the Mexican economy and helps maintain a certain social stability there.

Most of the estimated 10 million emigrants live in five states, according to Mexico's government: 46.3 percent in California, 21.3 percent in Texas, 6.6 percent in Arizona, 6.3 percent in Illinois and 3 percent in New York. More than 98 percent of all Mexican emigrants live in the United States, and about 84 percent are of voting age, the bill says.

Delw

 

[Hangar18]

This sounds less like suffrage, and more like a round-up.

 

[ringer]

Bullshit! Just saw some mexican nurse in Bisbee on the news saying she will not comply with prop 200 and report illegals wanting free services. I hope the supreme court upholds 200 and the people force the politicians to get a handle on this mess before we lose the majority vote to foreigners. Bah humbug and feliz my ass!

 

[snake river rufus]

But won't that interfere with them voting in OUR elections

 

[ELKCHSR]

I want to vote for the next president of Mexico...

 

[cjcj]

All i can say is "POLICE NAB YER DAD"

 

[A-con]

Sounds good to me, INS should have a couple of buses set up at each polling station.
Vote here, and then we'll give you a free bus ride home to watch the results.

 

[ELKCHSR]

I think this has a ring to it...
"The Great Wall of America"

 

[WH's OutdoorsChick]

HAHA!!!

I can not beleive that is ALL CJCJ has to say!!!

So Freaken stupid, when are they going to learn MEXICO is a seperate country...Maybe we should just kick thier A$$ and take it over and expand the USA!!!

LMFAO

 

[Nemont]

Do you guys understand that American Citizens have this very same right. There are millions of Americans living oversees who vote in every election. I didn't see anywhere in the article that says allowing Illegal immigrants a vote but only Mexican Citizens who live abroad. If it is a horrible deal then I guess we should not allow any absentee voting in U.S. elections either. Guess who would then be disenfranchised (to use Rev. Al Shaprton's favorite word) people like all our troops who are stationed out side of CONUS.

Your collective Panties are in a Knot without fully understanding what the issue is.

Nemont

 

[Ithaca 37]

Nemont, "Your collective Panties are in a Knot without fully understanding what the issue is." That's usually the case in SI, isn't it?

 

[cjcj]

Nemont/Ithaca The problem is "most" of these people are "ILLegal" and thats what the thread leaves out....Why are millions of Mexican Citizens living in the U.S.? They can without fear or documentation....If someone is here on a valid VISA or green card then it should be fine if they want to vote[ absentee] but who pays for it? Delw knows that the Majority are here Illegaly...we see it all day every day.................................WH chick i could post a murder/robbery/rape every day 10 times a day 365 days a year that happens in AZ... But since the "liberal" press refuses to address the problems with crime/illegals.. and our polititions are hiding like the "cowards" that they are.....I have kinda "burn`t out" for the time being...We passed PROP 200... and i`m just waiting for other states to act... follow suit[prop200]....I still donate some money to the cause .. and when /if things "heat up" i will get more vocal/active... right now i think it might be too late...unless GW.Bush.. starts a #1 "massive deportation" #2 goes after employers..#3 puts a military presence on the border......than nothing will change.... The illegals are coming over in RECORD numbers every day....a "few" more border patrol agents won`t help.....If we don`t get "RADICAL" and tough then all is lost for the future.....And for now we/they in power don`t have the BALL`S

 

[Nemont]

CJCJ,
I am not saying there are not a lot of illegal aliens here nor that they are a huge problem. What I am saying that the hue and cry that this law is somehow something that should not be allowed is not really very clear thinking.

IT,
You are right. I have been guilty of the that myself at different times.

Nemont

 

[danr55]

Nemont, et al,,,,, there is a huge difference between being allowed to vote overseas, and having a foreign government set up poling places in the United States so that Mexican citizens can vote. First, there has to be such a quantity of Mexican citizens to make something like that feasible.. That says a lot all by itself..

 

[Ithaca 37]

I guess I don't understand the problem. If the Mexican gummint wants to set this up: "Mexicans would be able to register to vote in the United States and cast their ballots at polling stations, probably set up in consulates around the country.", what, precisely is wrong with that? As long as it doesn't cost US taxpayers anything, why not? I do think, however, the INS should be checking the credentials of every Mexican voter in the US.

 

[JoseCuervo]

Nemont,

I just like your Al Sharpton reference....

And I agree about the guys with Panties in a knot..... This doesn't seem like something that I would get too worried about.

DanR,
Lots of countries have large populations living as Ex-patriates. I am sure that in Singapore, you could get enough Phillipinos to vote and sway an election in Manilla. I think Kuwait has many laborers from other countries, why would it be wrong for them to be able to vote in their home country?

Not a big deal.

 

[Delw]

The final bill also calls for the Federal Elections Institute to open temporary offices in the United States to register voters and run the voting.

So our taxs are going to have to pay for this?But why not we pay for everything else for illegals.

Yes I am going to say illegals cause most are at least here in AZ.
Just think they are probally pulling that money from the forrest service

"POLICE NAB YER DAD"

Cj thats funny

Delw

 

[ELKCHSR]

I would agree with Del....
If the Mexican Gov. wants to pay with their own dollars to set up and maintain these in their own consolates, that would be fine, but I don't personally think that one US dollar should pay, nor one inch of US ground should be used for this purpose.
Other places in the world have no such places for our people to vote here, it is set up on US commands and holdings with our own dollars to suppliment the process....

 

[Nemont]

Other places in the world have no such places for our people to vote here, it is set up on US commands and holdings with our own dollars to suppliment the process

Elkchsr,
You ever heard of "Host Nation Support"? If not you should read the SOFA that all countries hosting our forces and civilian support services have signed. Other governments have loaned us facilities, land, time, personel and talent to make sure our citizens get to vote.

The final bill also calls for the Federal Elections Institute to open temporary offices in the United States to register voters and run the voting.

Del, The Federal Elections Institute is an agency of Mexican "Federal" Government not the U.S. Federal Government. None of our tax dollars would be used to fund the program. If the polling places are Mexican Consulates then the Consulate Area is considered Mexican Territory (at least that is how I understand it). Mexican Consulates are not funded with U.S. taxpayer money.
Please note I am not pro illegal alien and wish Pres. Bush would deport all of them. To me it is unfair to all the legal aliens and my forefathers who came here legal to build a new life. My only point I am trying to make is that absentee voting is something we enjoy as a right and so should the Mexican people.

Nemont

 

[Delw]

If the federal election institute is mexican I have no problem with that part of it. They want to pay for it let them pay for it.



Delw