Mexico Escucha Las Voces Del Exterior

[Urging Federal Officials to Urge Mexico’s Federal Electoral Tribunal to Order a Vote by Vote Recount]


Resolution urging Federal officials to urge Mexico’s Federal Electoral Tribunal to order a vote by vote recount in the presidential election.

WHEREAS, On July 2, 2006, Mexico held a national election to choose its next president; and
WHEREAS, On July 4, 2006, Mexico’s Federal Election Institute announced that candidate Felipe Calderon had a nearly 500,000 vote lead over candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador; and
WHEREAS, This announcement resulted in an immediate challenge by Lopez Obrador who argued that over 3 million ballots or 8% of the total vote, had not been counted; and,
WHEREAS, On July 5, 2006, Mexico’s Federal Election Institute acknowledged that, contrary to its prior assertions, over three million ballots had not been counted and began counting them; and
WHEREAS, On July 6, 2006, the New York Times sampled six precincts, and found that all had miscounted their totals in favor of Calderon and to the detriment of Lopez Obrador; and
WHEREAS, On July 6, 2006, Mexico’s Federal Election Institute declared Calderon the winner by 236,000 votes out of 41 million cast; and
WHEREAS, Over the past month, media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now have covered numerous charges of electoral fraud from observers and the Lopez Obrador campaign which has cited irregularities in over 40,000 of Mexico’s 130,000 polling sites and has received numerous videos of electoral fraud, including videos showing ballot box stuffing in the state of Guanajuato and an election official in the state of Queretaro refusing to recount a ballot box that was later shown to have discrepancies in favor of Calderon; and
WHEREAS, In order to ensure fairness of the election, a vote by vote recount is essential without which the country’s democratic process will be at risk; and
WHEREAS, Mexico’s Federal Electoral Tribunal, an independent judicial body, is charged with approving the election or ordering recounts by September 6, 2006; and
WHEREAS, On July 7, 2006, The New York Times editorialized on the election saying, “there are enough problems to warrant a complete recount” and suggesting that Mexico’s Federal Electoral Tribunal order a recount as it has done for recent elections in the Mexico states of Tabasco and Colima; and
WHEREAS, Over the past few weeks following the election millions of Mexican citizens have been rallying across the country and in the capital demanding a full vote by vote recount -- asserting that only a vote by vote recount can put to rest lingering doubts about the July 2 election; and
WHEREAS, on August 4, 2006, the Federal Electoral Tribunal ordered only a partial recount of 9% of the country’s ballots, a recount that few believe will resolve these doubts or ameliorate growing tensions within the country; and
WHEREAS, As evidence of these doubts people across Mexico and in the international community have stepped up their call for a vote by vote recount and on August 8, 2006, The San Francisco Chronicle editorialized against the Federal Electoral Tribunal’s ordering a partial recount saying only “a full recount is necessary to establish public confidence in the final outcome”; and
WHEREAS, With thousands of Mexican immigrants people of Mexican descent and with the City and State’s economy closely linked to Mexico, San Francisco has a strong interest in the survival of Mexico’s democratic system; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That San Francisco Board of Supervisors hereby urges our Federal officials to urge Mexico’s Federal Electoral Tribunal to order an immediate vote by vote recount in the presidential election.