Denise Dresser: Why I'm Voiding My Ballot in Mexico's Mid-Term Elections Denise Dresser - Reforma
go to original May 18, 2015

Javier Sicila, of the Movement for Peace, with Denise Dresser in the "human chain" protest of the telecommunications law, last spring. (Aristegui Noticias)

Because I cannot go - in good conscience - to cast a vote which endorses an unfair election, a party system that doesn't punish anyone, a democratic system that is not accountable.

Because I believe that voiding the ballot is better than the abstention which would otherwise be the choice of millions of independent voters, who feel abandoned by the parties we have. To void the vote is to vote, to protest, to act - and not in order to destroy the party system but to make it function better.

Because very few candidates have stepped up to the minimum demand we've made of them - to present their statement of assets, their tax return and their declaration of conflict of interest. Out of more than 10,000 candidates, only 230 have undertaken to be transparent.

Because the independent candidates - valued and welcomed though they are - are not enough to reform the system from within.

Because it is not enough to punish one party by voting for others - for example voting for Morena [the Movement for National Regeneration] to punish the PRD [Party of the Democratic Revolution]- if all the parties end up corrupting themselves in order to compete.

Because if the punishment of voiding the ballot is sufficient, it can lead to a redesign of the rules, as happened after the election of 2009 when Felipe Calderón called together the leaders of the ballot voiding movement and, during marathon sessions in Los Pinos, designed electoral reform that led to re-election, independent candidates, public consultation etc. It is false that voiding the ballot makes no difference.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

Translated by Amanda Moody

Related: Activist Javier Sicilia on the Fear of Not Voting in Mexico Elections (Mexico Voices)

Mexico Voices is a blogging endeavor aimed at raising the awareness of U.S. citizens regarding the destructive impact of the U.S. economic policy and the War on Drugs on Mexico — on its people, their economic and physical security and their human rights, on the nation’s dysfunctional justice system, and on the rule of law and Mexico’s fragile democracy. Visit the website at MexicoVoices.blogspot.mx

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!