Fabiola Martinez
La Jornada Newspaper
Sunday, October 12, 2025, p. 4
The electoral roll – currently integrated with the personal data of 101 million 321 thousand 253 citizens – has multiple functions, beyond being raw material for the integration of the nominal list in each election.
The National Electoral Institute (INE) has 39 agreements in force with prosecutors’ offices, search commissions and state governments for the comparison of biometrics, especially fingerprints, essential to identify corpses and find their relatives, but also for all types of procedures, including those of the financial system that are counted daily in the thousands, notably in banks.
The most recent reports from the executive directorate of the Federal Voter Registry, endorsed by the parties, indicate that from July to September alone that directorate, as well as the local and district boards of the INE, received 43,331 requests from administrative, jurisdictional and ministerial authorities, with greater emphasis on the last two, to carry out biometric comparisons.
In a national context of just over 120,000 people reported missing, the INE contributed – in September – with the confirmation of data in favor of the identification of 18,821 people.
So far this year, there have been 6.2 million queries to determine if a citizen is registered on the nominal list. In addition, public, private, academic and productive institutions made, together, 24.8 million consultations in September, which gives a daily average of 827 thousand 569.
From private institutions alone, the average per day is 795,205 requests; Among the 10 with the highest number of queries, the financial institutions BBVA, Banamex, Santander and Mercado Libre stand out, in that order of requests.
To proceed with this possible confirmation of data, the INE must operate from guidelines approved in 2018, in terms of the provisions of the General Law of Electoral Institutions and Procedures.
Based on a strict legal framework, access to experts is provided, verification of the authenticity or issuance of any voting credential, electoral file and registration information.
