Mexican Left seeks annulment of over 3 million votes in presidential election recount (Translation)

La Crónica de Hoy ^ | August 12, 2006 | Daniel Blancas Madrigal ( translated by self )

[StJacques]

The For the Good of All coalition¹ asks for an annulment of the votes of the 11,800 electoral packets under revision²

In light of the scant variations which the partial recount of votes ordered by the Electoral Tribunal has shown, the strategy of the For the Good of All coalition spun towards the nullification of the more than 11,800 electoral packets which began to be opened the 9th of August.

Horacio Duarte, representative of the PRD in the IFE³, asserted that in 5,177 electoral packets of which he has reports, [the coalition] has detected 18,142 ballots overcounted⁴ and 51,658 undercounted with relation to the precinct reports for the voting day of July 2. By last night the count had climbed to more than 100,000 ballots in both categories.

"By the differences in the number of ballots the Tribunal must seriously and convincingly value the necessity of annulment," Duarte said.

According to the attorney's data, the sample of the partial recount represents 1,800,000 votes for the PAN candidate Felipe Calderon and 880,000 votes for the PRD candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. If they were annuled, "there would be an important turnover in the results."⁵

He declared: "In the instance of the partial count, the Tribunal is ordering the opening of nearly 12,000 electoral packets in light of Article 75 of the Law of the Means of Challenges, which says that when there is an error of willful misconduct the electoral packets can be nullified." Duarte, who also asserted that in the recount there have been changes in [in the vote totals of] 3,200 electoral packets, said that the coalition has not contemplated elaborating a formal nullification request: "we are only hoping that the Tribunal is consistent."

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Translator's Notes:

¹The "For the Good of All" coalition represents the alliance between Lopez Obrador's PRD (Party of the Democratic Revolution), the Labor party, and the Covergence for Democracy party supporting Lopez Obrador's presidential candidacy.

²On August 5 Mexico's Electoral Tribunal ordered a partial recount of the ballots in 11,839 casillas (electoral packets) in response to a challenge presented by the For the Good of All coalition. It is possible under Mexican electoral law to either "annul" a portion of the vote or even an entire election.

³Acronym for the Instituto Federal Electoral (Federal Electoral Institute), the official organ of the Mexican government which handles the counting of votes.

⁴By the logic of the For the Good of All coalition an "overcount" refers to a precinct in which more total votes are tallied than are shown on the signed list of voters who voted, and an "undercount" refers to a precinct in which the total votes tallied are less than the number of voters signing the list.

⁵According to the official vote count, PAN candidate Felipe Calderon finished first with 15,000,284 votes (35.89%) to Lopez Obrador's 14,756,350 (35.31%). given that there are over 2,680,000 votes for Calderon and Lopez Obrador combined, with other candidates in the race the 11,839 electoral packets would represent well over 3 million total votes cast in the election, perhaps over 4 million, I don't have the exact figures. With a difference of roughly 920,000 votes in favor of Calderon in the 11,839 electoral packets being recounted compared with a total difference nationwide of 243,934 in favor of Calderon, the annulment of the votes being recounted would give Lopez Obrador a lead approaching 680,000 votes.

[StJacques]

Well; this will tell you how the recount is going. Lopez Obrador and his leftist coalition are now seeking to have the ballot boxes in over 11,000 precincts favorable to Calderon annulled to give him the victory. I do not see any chance this wish will be granted, but the change in strategy by Lopez Obrador shows that it is all slipping away from him.

I do not have anything more on the specific votes for the recount at this moment beyond what I posted last night. But I will update this thread with those new numbers as they come in and I will ping the list.

[StJacques]

A Mex-Elex ping for you all.

Anyone wishing to keep track of all the articles translated from Mexican news sources can use the forum's "keyword search" option with the unique keyword "STJTRANSLATION" (or just click it above)

[jimtorr]

AlGore must be acting as a consultant to Obrador's campaign. Like Florida in 2000, they want to change the rules in mid-recount, when the recount is not going their way.

[kesg]

[jimtorr]

Until we don't hear from a government body.......

We already have not heard from a government body, so should we jump to conclusions now? ;)

Just funning with you.

[operation clinton cleanup]

Time to bring in the professionals!

[conservative in nyc]

Of course, there were no overcounts or undercounts in ObraGore-favorable districts. Right.

This sounds like the typical Algore only my my votes, not his votes strategy. It didn't work for Algore. It hopefully won't work for ObraGore.

[StJacques]

"Until we don't hear from a government body on this partial recount we should make no conclusions."

Across the numerous articles from Mexican news sources whose content I have been putting up on another thread, see my posts #21, 30, & 40; you can see that, whether you believe the reports of the PRD or PAN that the official tallies of the recounted ballots taken in sum will not represent an increase of more than, roughly, 5,000 votes for Lopez Obrador. So even in the words of his own spokesmen the official vote counts certified by the on-site magistrates of the Electoral Tribunal are not sufficient to justify their call for a full nationwide recount.

What is happening here now is that Lopez Obrador and his people are changing strategy. They know that they're not going to be able to show an increase in their vote totals sufficient to justify carrying out a full nationwide recount, so what they are now doing is alleging that inconsistencies in the reporting of votes revealed by the hand recount mandate that those votes be thrown out altogether. In effect, they are asking the Electoral Tribunal to rule that the voting in Calderon's ballot boxes did not meet a standard of acceptability and therefore all votes in those boxes should be thrown out.

cellularmania77, I'm just going to guess that you've been through a close "recount watch" or two and you've learned the wisdom of Yogi Berra's dictum that it ain't over till it's over. Am I right? I feel your anxiety. Forgive us if we've contributed to it.

[StJacques]

Interesting pic there. There actually is a Mexican equivalent I can point out here, so consider this just an "FYI" post.

The ballots in question are paper ones on which voters mark their choice with an "X" across the square for the candidate using a provided crayon. Under Mexican law the "X" may not cross between two "squares" or the ballot is considered "null." Over the past two days there have been numerous complaints from the PRD (Lopez Obrador's party) representatives that the magistrates are being too strict in enforcing this rule. And my reading of the several news articles I have seen suggests that there have been some variations across the country in the way the law is interpreted.

[Enterprise]

They want three millions votes annulled? BWAHAHAHAHAHA - Oh, cry me a Rio Grande river!

[StJacques]

Well everyone, how does the following stack up on the "threat level" scale?

Lopez Obrador was speaking today in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, which covers most of Mexico's border with Guatemala, campaigning for the For the Good of All coalition candidate for the governorship of the state, Juan Sabines. The following statement is quoted in an article (in Spanish) on the El Universal web site:

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. . . Lopez Obrador stated that if the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Federation (TEPJF) gives the victory to Felipe Calderon he will use everything that is within reach, with peaceful civil resistance, to prevent that which, according to him, imposes a president [on Mexico]. . . .

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I take that to be a clear statement that Lopez Obrador is not going to permit Calderon to become President, even if the Electoral Tribunal declares him the winner. The question we all have to ask ourselves is "do we believe him"? My personal answer is that I do believe him and my worries that Mexico is heading for a calamity have not been diminished.

And on that subject, I want to post a political cartoon from Monday's edition of El Universal. The caption in the balloon is "WHO WON?" and I've translated the cartoon's title

The Peaceful Resistance Continues

  

[Shuttle Shucker]

[Shuttle Shucker]

[BunnySlippers]

Lopez Obrador was speaking today in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, which covers most of Mexico's border with Guatemala,

I find it suspicious that he choses Chiapas right NOW to make this statement. Chiapas being the most socially and politically unstable part of Mexico. Sounds like he's itching for revolution.

[Shuttle Shucker]

Let's see what the betters think lately:

[Shuttle Shucker]

During the past 3 days or so, ObraGore's prospects (in online betting folks' eyes) seem to have fallen by about 50%. They were pretty low to begin with. Even his own cronies have apparently started withdrawing their bets which they likely waged for publicity's sake in hopes that they could get a "real" job in his administration :-)

[Enterprise]

I take the leftists at their word if it is a close election and they want power. Civil war is at hand, and if it comes, the left in this country will back them. Whew - is it me or is it HOT right now?

[Enterprise]

I forgot - I really LIKE that graphic!

[Shuttle Shucker]

>>>And my reading of the several news articles I have seen suggests that there have been some variations across the country in the way the law is interpreted.<<<

Might this be grounds for recounts nationwide, if not revoting or something similarly alarming?


Meanwhile, does this passage show reason for us to be concerned?


>>>Horacio Duarte, representative of the PRD in the IFE3, asserted that in 5,177 electoral packets of which he has reports, [the coalition] has detected 18,142 ballots overcounted4 and 51,658 undercounted with relation to the precinct reports for the voting day of July 2. By last night the count had climbed to more than 100,000 ballots in both categories.<<<