International voter turnout sharply increased in Mexico's election, but many reported challenges

Voter turnout by Mexicans in other countries saw a drastic 76% increase on last Sunday's elections compared to 2018's race, according to data from Mexico's National Electoral Institute.

While it remains unclear the share each party gathered, more than 197,000 people out of the more than 258,000 international registered voters made their way to the polls.

That is a sharp increase compared to the country's past election, in which 98,470 Mexicans cast a ballot, with the majority of those votes coming from the U.S. From those figures, almost 70% of the votes went to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and around 27% to PAN candidate Ricardo Anaya.

A large part of the international votes in these elections also came from Mexicans in the U.S., with the vast majority of the electorate (80%) opting for mail-in ballots or internet voting, according to Cuitlahuac Osotio, technical secretary of Mexico's Electoral Registry.

But despite higher turnout, people who tried to vote in person saw major challenges. In fact, only a third of the 15,000 that registered to vote in person were able to cast their ballots.

At the Mexican consulate in downtown Los Angeles, for instance, voters were hopeful to be a part of the historical election, but left in frustration after the agency said they were not prepared to serve so many people.

Montserrat Rosales, who lives in Los Angeles, waited for three hours and was unable to cast her vote, NBC Los Angeles reported. She was one of many who were disappointed after being left out of the election.

"We couldn't get into the consulate," said Rosales. "Immigrants that live in other places also care about Mexico and the regulations and we want a better country even though we're not there."

Similar experiences were also reported across different cities in the U.S., like New York City, Chicago and Seattle.

"I have to say that the law does not allow us to hold the election outside the consulates, in larger spaces where more equipment would have fit. That was a limitation that would have to be analyzed to put in more terminals and personnel," Rosales said in response to the reports.

"This in-person election has been a great lesson moving forward. We must take into account that this is the first time that an in-person vote has been carried out," she continued.

Experts believe the election's turnout is due to the increased options for voting. Since 2006, Mexicans in foreign countries have been able to vote by only casting their ballots by mail. Another reason, according to La Opinion, can be due to citizens' desire to decrease corruption and violence, two things that rose during Lopez Obrador's term in office.