Photo by Bruce Hobson: Voting lines on June 2 at the Escuela Normal polling station  

Mexico’s June 2 election leaves us with two great lessons. On the one hand, we have the political awakening of an entire nation, as shown by the voters. On the other hand, we are faced with a major problem: the National Electoral Institute (INE) did not fully guarantee the right to vote.

Its failure demonstrates its great disrespect for the people. Because the INE only allowed us approximately 10 hours to vote, many citizens were unable to do so. In the capital city of Guanajuato, where I worked at a polling station, people began queuing at 7 am, but my polling station didn’t open until 8:45. Voting day in Mexico is always on Sunday, but many people still work on that day. The INE effectively denied them the opportunity to vote.

The INE’s lack of organization also delayed the voting — long lines of people waited many hours, including the elderly and people with disabilities. Again, this made it impossible for many to vote before the polls closed at 6 pm. If you came to vote one minute after six, you were shut out of voting.

Finally, the INE’s representatives were far from impartial. While party representatives remained attentive and quiet for nearly 20 hours during vote counting, INE representatives openly expressed their own political ideas and gave out false information. Not surprisingly, that created distrust in the INE, and trust is essential for an electoral institute.

This was the first time that I participated as a poll representative for Morena. Despite the INE’s failures and the exhaustion of all of us poll workers, we were happy to take part to guarantee the right to freely elect our president and governors, whatever our preferences.