The National Electoral Institute (INE) has begun printing 602 million ballots for the historic election by popular vote for various positions in the Judiciary on June 1. Citizen participation is an unknown in this innovative electoral process. The distribution of positions represents inequality regarding the location of voters, with cases like Mexico City, which has 11 judicial districts for 8 million citizens, while the State of Mexico, with 13.2 million inhabitants, only has three judicial districts.
Horacio Vives, a professor in the Political Science Academic Department at ITAM, pointed out that votes in judicial elections will be counted by citizens who are part of the district councils, along with professional electoral service personnel. The vote counting process will begin on the Wednesday following the election and could last up to ten days, which would delay the delivery of official results.
The judicial elections will require voting for 881 positions, but only 31 of them will be eligible nationwide, such as the nine ministers of the Supreme Court and the judges of the Electoral Tribunal. Unlike traditional elections, where citizens can be guided by party logos, this time the ballots are more complex and do not include photographs of the candidates. Six different ballot models will be used, tailored to the positions to be elected in each region.
The process of aligning judicial circuits with electoral districts has been one of the necessary adaptations for carrying out these elections. Additionally, it is expected that in some states like Durango and Veracruz, three types of elections will coincide: federal, local, and municipal, which adds complexity to the process. The logistics for these elections are monumental, as in addition to the ballots for the federal election, 17 states will also hold local judicial elections, totaling 602 million ballots, almost double what was used in the 2024 federal election.
These judicial elections in Mexico present an unprecedented challenge due to their technical and logistical complexity, which has required significant adaptations in the organization of the elections.
