Mexican Presidential Elections

It looks like the polls were correct in predicting Enrique Pena Nieto as the next president of Mexico. The voting took place on Sunday and the results are only preliminary. They will be counted over and over again this week and in the coming months.  The second place finisher, nickcnamed AMLO, didn't take kindly to losing 6 years ago and his supporters closed the main street Reforma for months by camping out on it. He never admitted that he lost and introduced himself as the real president of Mexico. He said he would not do this if he lost this year, but we'll see what happens!

Here are some interesting things I learned about Mexican elections:

• People are randomly selected to work at the polls. Unlike our poll workers, they do not get paid.

• All of the people working at the poll count the votes by hand and need to come up with matching numbers.

• You can get a lot of free things at stores and restaurants if you show your thumb with ink on it (proof that you voted). Coffee, discounts on food, free whopper jr. etc.

• The ballots have pictures of the parties' symbols (for people who can't read).

• The word used for going to the polls means to go to the "urns." According to my french and german roommates, this is normal in other languages too. I'm glad we chose polls instead of urns.