About one-third of the ballots cast in Mexico’s general elections last weekend, according to estimates, will have to be recounted for a variety of reasons specified by the law, election officials said Tuesday. The recount is a normal procedure under election rules, with the ballots cast at one-third of polling places being tallied a second time after the 2009 legislative elections. Recounts can be executed for a number of reasons, including when there is a difference equal to or less than 1 percent separating the winner and the second-place finisher, when there are errors on ballots or when the number of void ballots is greater than the difference between the victor and the candidate who came in second.
Between 45,000 and 50,000 packages from the nearly 143,000 polling places established for the general elections “would eventually be opened” for the recount of ballots, Federal Electoral Institute, or IFE, official Alfredo Figueroa said in a press conference. “We are making estimates … We are talking in general terms about a third of the presidential election,” Figueroa said.
As of now, full recounts will be done in 19 of Mexico’s 300 election districts because the difference between the winner of the presidential election and the second-place finisher is equal to or less than 1 percent, meaning that the ballots from 10,000 polling places will be tallied a second time. “There will probably be partial recounts in other districts,” Figueroa said.
Full Article: Mexican elections agency to do recount of 1/3 of ballots | Fox News Latino.
