They are when you're talking about the special voting places. Right now, hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) of Mexican are on vacation. Perhaps you aren't aware of that because you don't live in Mexico and you don't pay attention to middle class trends. I do.

What exactly is your point, Jules?

It so obvious that I can't understand your question, which I think is a rhetorical trick. I'll answer it anyway. The failure to provide enough ballots for people who had moved or were away from home did not only affect the poor. Have you ever been in Mexican long distance bus station? Are all those people poor? Are even a majority poor?

I think you underestimate the mobility of the middle- and upper-middle classes, especially during the summer. Since I believe that they were most likely to be registered voters, they would be a significant number of those who were deprived of the right to vote. How many poor, itinerant workers are registered, do you think?

That the privileged

Only privileged people take vacations? I guess that would be true if your definition of privilege is anyone who can afford to take a vacation.

who take vacations are systematically discriminated against by the electoral system because they have to stay in town for election day if they want to vote???

No, I am saying that they were affected by the lack of ballots, too. Here in Cancun, they were one of the sectors that were most affected. Not all of them were Hotel Zone tourists (although I see no reason why they should have been deprived of their vote).

We get a lot of visitors from other parts of the Republic who stay in hotels in town or with relatives. About a third of the Cancun market is Mexican. Since we get more than three million visitors a year, we are talking about a million people, most of whom come here during the summer and Semana Santa.

There are also vacation resorts all over Mexico that are mainly frequented by Mexicans, many of them working class, such as teachers, salaried workers, plumbers, independent airconditioning and electrical technicians, painters, carpenters, and so on.

At this time of year, I see a lot of out-of-town vehicles with small business signs on them, obviously being used to take the family on vacation. If these people were all that privileged, wouldn't they have other vehicles for their personal use?

We also have a lot of impoverished construction workers in Quintana Roo, many of whom come here from other areas. I haven't seen any statistics on how many of them tried to vote. There was a great deal of anger from everyone who was turned away. The presumption that only the poor and those most likely to vote for the PRD were affected is highly improbable conjecture.

Oh, the injustice.

If it's unjust for migrant workers to be deprived of their right to vote, it's unjust for middle class people on vacation to be deprived of the right to vote. It's unjust for anyone to be deprived of the right to vote. Are you trying to argue that democracy is only for the poor?

Thanks for the information on the activities by perredistas to help Mexicans on the other side of the border to vote. I still stand on my statement that when the reforms were first announced they were criticized as a trick to favor the PAN, as it was thought that Mexicans living in the United States would be more conservative.

I don't know if that perception was true. I never saw any polls on their voting preferences. If you can find any, please let me know.