Voting centers for the PJ election will have up to 3 thousand people

Fabiola Martinez

La Jornada Newspaper
Sunday, January 12, 2025, p. 6

In it new model For the judicial election, designed with the resources available so far, the voting centers would group the equivalent of four polling stations, that is, 3 thousand voters in each vote-receiving site. Traditional polling stations have up to 750 voters each.

Likewise, the budget reduction to the National Electoral Institute (INE) would radically increase the area of ​​responsibility of the trainers and field supervisors (CAE), going from four polling stations of 750 voters to four sections of 4 thousand registered voters each. This is because the number of CAEs would be reduced by almost 58 percent, if compared to the personnel available in last year’s election.

The above is detailed in the document delivered by the INE to the Presidency of the Republic and the Ministry of the Interior, bodies that will analyze the issue to determine the size of the budget expansion to the body, in order to improve the organizational conditions of the first election in Mexico by popular vote of ministers, magistrates and judges.

Due to the cut applied by the Chamber of Deputies to the INE, which requested 40,476 million pesos, but was left with 27 billion, all operating expenses are reduced in cascade, starting with a reduction of 172 thousand boxes in the elections prior to 73 thousand 850 for next Sunday, June 1.

Likewise, given this reduction, the INE chose to design smaller ballots (letter or half-letter size) and generic ballot boxesinstead of a box per type of election, to cite other central points.

Although the INE will no longer need 4,620 million pesos to carry out a popular consultation, because the only registered request was not admitted, and it cannot transfer the 7,354 million of public financing to the national political parties, the body Yes, he had to modify the other tasks.

The base budget of operations of the electoral body went from 13,255 to 12,305 million pesos; Its institutional portfolio of projects was reduced from 1,208 to 494.2 million, and the projects for the local elections will have 626 million instead of the 832 million pesos budgeted.

Likewise, as has been reported, the INE had proposed spending 13,205 million pesos to organize the judicial election, and in the end decided to leave that purse at less than half, that is, 6,219 million.

Importance of CAEs

The INE argued this week in front of President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo – and also did so in writing – the importance of the CAE for the integration and installation of polling stations, which is why it is necessary – he stressed – to give them sufficient teaching materials, computer equipment, clothing and voice and data service.

The issue is of utmost importance in the exhibition, pointing out that for the 2024 federal election 50,613 CAE were hired and now it would only be enough to pay 21,690, plus some technicians, rounding the figure at 22,012 temporary workers, just for this part of the preparation for the Judicial Branch elections.

In addition to having less time for the hiring process, the INE highlighted that it would reduce the budget by 61 percent for the field expenses of these crews, including the number of telephone technicians (via Internet and even satellite) that they require to go to field to look for potential polling station officials.

The Mexican electoral system dictates that in a first stage, authorized people with their distinctive pink vest must knock on the doors of 13 percent of the citizens registered on the registry, which at current numbers would reach about 13 million homes.

One of the immediate options, to address the decrease in resources, is to eliminate the option of the digital platform for the development of virtual courses for the CAEs.

There would also be no capturers for the Electoral Day Information System, previously three were hired per district, and everything is left to the transmission of data via mobile application, also a point of concern for the INE.

Likewise, with what is available, the production of audiovisual materials would be reduced to encourage citizen participation; It would cancel events at universities for this same purpose (last year there were 286 meetings), and reduce billboards by 61 percent for the dissemination of institutional messages.

In practice, having fewer resources – in addition to legal and operational elements – resulted in not including in this judicial election Mexicans living abroad (last year 223,970 Mexicans registered), nor people in preventive detention (last June there was a vote in 217 penitentiary centers).

They expected more

Although Sheinbaum told the press that so far there would be 800 million to give to the INE – additional to the current amount – as long as it transparently breaks down each of the expenses, the counselors expected something more, between 1,000 and 1,500 million for strengthen the new voting model.

This strengthening involves – according to the document already being analyzed by the government – ​​by hiring more CAEs, and giving them the necessary equipment; ensure food for polling station officials; guarantee the payment of temporary staff, especially those in the field and in computer and technical tasks; expand satellite telephone coverage for rural areas, and in general the mechanisms for collecting and concentrating electoral results data, and train the staff of the Federal Voter Registry modules that will make the final calculations of this historic election.