Mexico presidential election: Houston consulate sees around 800 voters

HOUSTON - Voting is underway in Mexico to elect the country's next president in 2024 and some Mexican citizens outside the country are visiting consulates in person to vote.

The Houston consulate at 10555 Richmond Avenue sees lines down the street nearly three-quarters of a mile long with around 800 voters, according to voters.

In Texas, the only two places to vote for Mexican citizens living abroad are at the consulate buildings in Dallas and Houston. One man reports he drove from Austin to vote in Houston for the Mexico election.

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According to The Texas Tribune, as of Feb. 8, 630,513 Mexicans living abroad are eligible to vote and in Texas, about 240,000 people have gotten voter IDs from the Dallas and Houston Mexican consulates so they were eligible to register to vote in the June election.

Voters will choose between presidential candidates: Claudia Sheinbaum, Xochitl Gálvez, and Jorge Álvarez Máynez. For the first time in Mexico's history, two women lead the polls: Sheinbaum, the former mayor of Mexico City, is trailed by Gálvez, an opposition senator and tech entrepreneur.

This means Mexico will likely elect its first female president.

Electing a female president would be a huge step in a country with soaring levels of gender-based violence and deep gender disparities.

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Mexico still has a famously intense "machismo", or culture of male chauvinism, that has created large economic and social disparities in society. In its most extreme form, the misogyny is expressed in high rates of femicides, and things like acid attacks against women.

Both frontrunner Claudia Sheinbaum and opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez have promised to address high rates of gender-based violence and gender disparities if they win.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.