With Mexico ready to host its presidential elections, Bay Area Mexican citizens will have the opportunity to vote in the historic election come Sunday.
The election will be the first time Mexico is expected to elect its first female president, and it's the first time Mexicans living abroad can vote in the presidential elections.
For some voters it’s brought about mixed feelings.
Voter Magali Suarez said she did know if the country is ready for a woman to become president.
For Salvador Sanchez, another voter, he is excited to vote but that it’s also his duty as a Mexican.
Voters have the option to cast their ballots either in person at the Mexican Consulate in San Jose or online if they are registered beforehand.
Sitting at the top of the polls is Claudia Sheinbaum, of the current administration’s Morena Party. Sheinbaum, the former head of Mexico City’s government, also pursued research in physics and eneergy energinering at the University of California, Berkeley.
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Her opponent, Xochitl Galvez, a former Mexican senator, is representing a coalition made up of the National Action Party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party and the Party of the Democratic Revolution.
Come Sunday, Evergreen Political Science Professor Andres Quintero said regardless of who is elected it will have a big impact on both sides of the boarder.
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Quintero said on election day U.S. political and economic leaders should be paying attention.
“Anyone who’s not paying attention is being derelict of their responsibility to do right by our country by making sure our neighbors are a healthy democracy,” he said.
Leading up to the election, 34 candidates for Mexico’s presidency have been killed, some likely linked to cartels, NBC reported.
In addition to casting their ballot for president, voters will have a say in nine gubernational races.
