Introduction
With just ten days until the election for the Judicial Power, uncertainty looms. There’s confusion surrounding voter turnout and expected results for this complex electoral exercise conducted by the INE. Recent signal changes have added to the confusion.
Voting Details and Confusion
On the night of Friday, May 23, rumors spread following a sudden shift in signals. Voters will use Excel lists transitioning to printed accordion-style sheets with color codes and numbers to fill out ballot boxes for the election on June 1. The process is complex: for the five Supreme Court justices, voters will use numbers 03, 08, 16, 22, and 26. For judges, candidates are located at positions 34, 41, 43, and 48 on the ballot.
For the Tribunal of Disciplinary Judicial, voters will use numbers 02 (women), 04 (women), 09 (women), 21 (men), and 31 (men). For the Tribunal Electoral of the Judicial Power, voters will use numbers 06 (women) and 07 (men).
The planning of groups and organizations supporting candidate groups has had to undergo significant adjustments due to the decision that governors will build consensus for regional Court of the TEPJF magistrates, circuit magistrates, and district judges.
Voting Complexities Across States
The recent information storm diverted attention from the atypical nature of this federal-state collaboration election. Voters in Chihuahua will fill out 13 ballots, Michoacán voters 11, the State of Mexico 10, and the City of Mexico 9.
In Baja California, Michoacán, and Durango, the voting process will be a mere formality due to common candidate arrangements and pre-blocked list ballots.
Michoacán’s case is the worst. Candidates were selected by a committee consisting of the local notary president, legal counsel, and state government secretary.
Even in these states, there’s a risk of voting station chaos if the ballot-filling process is slow and cumbersome. Acordeón-style ballots might be the solution, though their effectiveness remains uncertain.
Optimistic scenarios predict 15 million voters will participate. The morenista leadership is committed to mobilizing 23% of the registered voters.
Budgetary constraints have drastically altered INE’s planning. The initial idea of quickly opening voting centers was abandoned in favor of a network of 84,124 polling stations. Their locations depend on voter concentration in judicial districts and circuits (maximum 2,250 voters), leading to uneven scrutiny team coverage. Processing election results will be challenging due to this uncertainty.
Secondary Effects
High Tension:
The Comisión Federal de Electricity (CFE) must decide on purchasing 287,000 medium-tension meters requiring a 1.3 billion peso investment by May 28. The original schedule included technical evaluation on May 21-22, but a leading Chinese company underwent immigration inspection on the same day as its test. Was this a coincidence? Some within CFE doubt it.
