Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/502

482 a hardship, in view of the indifference manifested toward exercising the privilege. To assume that one tenth of the qualified voters participated in the most popular of late presidential elections is a liberal estimate; hence the ease with which officials can influence or decide the result, especially as regulations for the polls and ballots are little observed or understood by the great mass of Indian and cognate castes.

The Mexican system of elections is divided into primaries and secondaries. According to the organic law of 1857, each governor of a state divides his political territory into electoral districts containing 40,000 inhabitants each, and designates the town where the electoral junta is to assemble. The municipalities in each district next divide their jurisdictions into sections containing 500 inhabitants each, and one elector for each section is chosen by popular vote. These are the primary elections. On an appointed day, the electors chosen meet at the town selected by the governor, and having appointed a president, two examiners and counters of votes, and a secretary, these constitute a junta electoral, or electoral college. The votes having been counted, the junta's first duty is to pronounce upon the legality or illegality of the elections in the case of each member. For this purpose, a committee is appointed to examine the credentials with which the electors are furnished by the officers of the primaries. Its report is submitted to the junta, which approves or disapproves of the findings by taking a general vote on each. The junta then proceeds on the second Sunday in July to the election of one deputy to the general congress, and one suplente. On the following day the elections of the presidents of the republic and of the supreme court take place; and on the third day those of the magistrates of the