The president of the Temporary Commission of Votes from Mexicans Abroad, Enrique Andrade González, has informed that the National Electoral Institute (INE) received 98, 854 votes of Mexicans overseas, to be counted during today's election.
This number has tripled the vote of Mexicans abroad of the previous two elections of 2006 – with 33, 111 votes received – and 2012, with 40, 961.
According to Andrade González, all votes come from a total of 106 countries yet 77% of those were sent from the United States alone.
Although he stated there is a gradual increase in the number of voters received from Mexicans abroad, Andrade acknowledged they still have to work in the trust factor in order to encourage and increase participation.
The votes received from abroad were kept at a warehouse of the INE in Mexico City and starting at 08:00 hours of today, were transferred under the custody of the Army to the facilities of the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education to be counted after 18:00 hours.
Electoral authorities expect to have the final result of the votes of Mexicans abroad before 22:00 hours today.
Last May 30, the Executive Manager of the Federal Registry of Voters, René Miranda, and Councilor Andrade, announced they had opened an investigation to look into a human error in which the receiver's address was wrongly written in 44, 197 electoral kits.
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