Elections Offer Mexican Nationals Cross-Border Voting
BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: The ballots are now being counted in Mexico's historic presidential elections, and the polls began closing an hour ago. The candidates: the PRI's Francisco Labastida from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, he has 37 years of public service experience and is Mexico's former secretary of interior. His competitor is Vincente Fox with the National Action Party. He is the former president of Coca-Cola Mexico and a former Mexican state governor. CNN Mexico City bureau chief Harris Whitbeck joins us by phone now with the latest. Harris, I understand some early regional returns might be in.</s>HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN MEXICO CITY BUREAU CHIEF: That's right, Brian. The levels of anticipation and excitement are increasing here. Polls are still open in the western part of Mexico, the state of Baja California. They will be open there for another hour. But here in Mexico City, where polls have closed, the local television networks have come out with preliminary results that are still too divergent to be valid. The Federal Electoral has still not come out with any official result, but obviously with so much at stake here and with an election that has been considered to be so close and had been predicted to be so close, there is an incredible amount of interest here. Here in Mexico City, at the Independence Plaza, which is one of the landmarks of Mexico City, which was chosen as a site where supporters of Vincente -- opposition candidate Vincente Fox would gather tonight, people have already started trickling in. And people have started gathering at other points in the city where the other candidates had announced that they would be holding rallies tonight. So there's really nothing concrete to report tonight, except to tell you that while polls are beginning to close in the rest of the country, there's a lot of anticipation and a lot of excitement.</s>NELSON: Harris, turnout is often an indicator of change. How has turnout been throughout the election today in Mexico?</s>WHITBECK: Turnout has been extraordinarily high, a lot higher than people expected. And some analysts say that that might be to an advantage to the opposition. We spoke to many people who had come out to vote who in previous elections might not have thought of taking the time out to vote. And they said that they had voted because this time they felt that their vote would count and would make a difference. As you know, the authorities here have made great efforts to convince the voting citizens that this election will respectful of their decision, will be clean and free of fraud. And observers, both nationally and international, have said that all in all the election has been -- has gone along smoothly and is, in fact -- or has been clean.</s>NELSON: Thank you. That's CNN's Harris Whitbeck reporting to us from Mexico City, and we'll be back to him throughout the night for early updates. There is considerable interest in the Mexican national election north of the Mexico-U.S. border. Mexico is one of United States' largest trading partners, and Mexican nationals living in the U.S. have been making the trek southward to cast their ballots. CNN's Jim Hill is in the border city of Tijuana.</s>JIM HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mexicans living in the U.S. crossed the border and lined up early at this special polling place in Tijuana, Mexico.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's an opportunity for the Mexicans living in the United States to come all the way here and express our rights to choose our leaders.</s>HILL: But voting was delayed, as ballots, voting booths and ballot boxes arrived late and officials struggled to assemble them. There were a squabble after someone tried to cut in front of others in the long line. The first voter stepped into the booth nearly an hour after the polls opened. This was billed as Mexico's cleanest election ever, with an independent organization running the election. For the first time, Mexican expatriates from the U.S. could vote at one of 64 special polling places in border cities like Tijuana.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not still citizen in the United States, I'm just a resident. So I feel that I have the chance to vote here, you know, for my president for Mexico.</s>HILL: However, the major political parties agreed to keep the number of ballots in each one of these special polling places at 750 because of worries an unlimited number could encourage fraud.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a little worried because the line is only right now 1,400 person already. So what about all the rest of the people?</s>HILL (on camera): Altogether, there were 48,000 ballots for so- called cross-border voting, not likely to be a big factor in a nation where nearly 60 million people are eligible to vote. (voice-over): The estimated 1.5 million Mexican citizens in the U.S. do have financial clout. They send up to $6 billion each year to relatives in Mexico. And many expatriates are critical of the ruling PRI, which is locked in a tight race with the PAN, the major opposition party. Early balloting in this location progressed slowly. But people waited patiently as the line snaked around the block, perhaps a sign of voter faith in their country's new commitment to democracy. Jim Hill, CNN, Tijuana, Mexico.