Voting Rates

Abstention in Sunday's election topped out at about 65 percent in Chihuahua, with Tamaulipas right behind at around 60 percent. This has been attributed to violence in the states, which certainly may have played a role, but the fact that 60 percent abstention is not atypical for gubernatorial elections in Mexico argues against that supposition. So does the fact that Sinaloa and Durango, neither of which is a stranger to violence, had abstention rates of below 50 percent, while Quintana Roo, which has some organized crime elements but is not one of Mexico's most violent states, the figure was close to 60 percent.

I've not seen an aggregation of all of the race, but generally speaking, the abstention rates seem lower than those in recent non-presidential elections. In addition to Sinaloa and Durango, in Aguascalientes, Veracruz, Oaxaca, and Zacatecas turnout was above 50 percent of registered voters.