Mexicans would vote in US as expatriates if they could do so

Millions of Mexicans living in the United States would vote as expatriates in next year's presidential election in Mexico if they could legally do so, according to a survey released in Mexico City on Monday. The Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center, in an exhaustive survey of nearly 5,000 Mexicans in the United States, found that nearly nine in 10 said they would participate in Mexico's elections. "The prospect of voting in Mexican elections has broad and deep appeal," Roberto Suro, the center's director, said in his report. The center's findings come at a time when the Mexican Congress is weighing a proposal that would, for first time, give Mexican citizens in the United States the right to cast ballots here for candidates in Mexico's presidential election. If the proposal is approved, the 2006 presidential campaign could spill across the U.S. border. Mexican presidential candidates might stump in Arizona and other states with large Mexican communities. Mexico's political landscape would be drastically altered by putting in play the votes and voices of more than 9 million Mexican immigrants, the largest foreign-born group in the United States.  [more]