✶How to vote · jornada electoral · 08:00–18:00 local time
Every Mexican citizen aged 18 or over may vote, with the credencial para votar that INE issues free of charge. On polling day you go to the casilla of your section, run by neighbours drawn by lot, mark each ballot behind a screen and get your thumb inked. On 2 June 2024, 60,115,184 people voted for President, 61.0% of the lista nominal.
Who votes · CPEUM arts. 34–35
Citizens are Mexicans who have turned 18 and have “un modo honesto de vivir” (art. 34); voting in popular elections is the first right of citizenship (art. 35 I). The rights are suspended in the cases of art. 38, such as while serving a prison sentence.
CPEUM arts. 34, 35, 38 ↗To vote you must be on the Registro Federal de Electores and hold a credencial para votar (LGIPE art. 9). INE issues it at its service modules, with photograph; it is valid for ten years from the year it was issued (art. 156.5).
INE · credencial ↗The padrón electoral holds everyone who has applied; the lista nominal holds those who have also collected their credencial, by district and section (arts. 128, 147). Only the lista nominal votes. INE sets a cut-off date before each election for new applications and changes of address.
LGIPE arts. 9, 128, 147, 156 ↗INE's own services tell you whether your credencial is valid and where your casilla is. This site does not look anyone up and stores nothing about voters.
Lista nominal ↗ · Ubica tu casilla ↗Polling day for ordinary elections is a mandatory day of rest under federal labour law; it falls on a Sunday, the first of June.
Ley Federal del Trabajo art. 74 IX ↗ · LGIPE art. 22 ↗Polling day
What happens at your casilla, LGIPE arts. 253–297.
Step 1 of 6 · INE
You vote at the casilla of the electoral section (sección) printed on your credencial. INE publishes where each one will be; its own “Ubica tu casilla” service finds it from the credencial's details. This site does not look anyone up.
Step 2 of 6 · Mesa directiva de casilla
Each casilla is run by citizens of the section, drawn by lot (INE draws a birth month, then 13% of each section's list from that month on) and trained by INE: a president, a secretary and scrutineers, plus substitutes (LGIPE art. 254). Party representatives may watch.
Step 3 of 6 · The president of the casilla
Voters go in the order they arrive, show their credencial para votar, and are found on the lista nominal with photograph (art. 278). A credencial that has been altered or is not the voter's is kept.
Step 4 of 6 · You, alone
You receive one ballot per election and mark, freely and in secret, the box of the party you vote for, or write the name of a non-registered candidate (art. 279.1). The screen (mampara) carries the words “El voto es libre y secreto” (art. 253.7).
Step 5 of 6 · The secretary
Fold each ballot and drop it in its own box (urna). The secretary stamps “votó” on the list, marks your credencial, inks your right thumb with indelible liquid and hands the credencial back (art. 279.3–4).
Step 6 of 6 · The mesa directiva, in public
At 18:00 the casilla closes unless voters are still queuing (art. 285). The officials count the ballots there and then, fill in an acta for each election and post the results outside (arts. 288–297).
Four kinds of casilla
One casilla for every 750 voters (or fraction) in a section; the basic one serves the first part of the list in alphabetical order.
LGIPE art. 253.3 ↗The second and following casillas of a section with more than 750 voters, set up next to the básica, each with its part of the alphabet.
LGIPE art. 253.3–4 ↗Where geography or local conditions make one site hard to reach, extra casillas closer to the voters, each with the list of the area it serves.
LGIPE art. 253.5 ↗Up to ten per district for voters temporarily away from their section. What you can vote for depends on how far away you are: outside your district, only the list (RP) vote for deputies; outside your circunscripción, nothing for deputies at all.
LGIPE arts. 258, 284 ↗When a state votes the same day, federal and local ballots are cast at one shared casilla (casilla única, art. 253.1).
The ballots · boletas
In a general election there are three federal ballots: President, Senate and Chamber of Deputies. On 6 June 2027 the only federal ballot is the deputies'; voters in 17 states also get a ballot for governor, and almost everywhere ballots for the state congress and the municipality.
One box per party on the deputies' ballot stands for both the district candidate and the party's regional list (LGIPE art. 266.2 f): a single mark elects the district deputy by plurality and counts for the party's share of the 200 list seats. Parties appear in the order of their registration, each with its own emblem even when in coalition; joint emblems are not allowed (art. 266.5–6).
The judicial elections (2025, and next on 4 June 2028) use different ballots: voters write the numbers of the candidates they choose. How those ballots work →
Deputies, 2024 · INE district counts
Try it · LGIPE arts. 288, 291, 311 · LGPP art. 87.13
Mark one party, or two or three parties of the same coalition. A vote for several coalition parties counts once, for the coalition's candidate, and is split among the parties marked; a mark across coalitions, or no mark, is null.
Try it · federal deputies ballot · 2 June 2024
Pick a district, then tap boxes to mark or unmark them, or write a name in the last box.
Both coalitions ran a joint candidate here.
Diputaciones federales09-14 · Tlalpan, Mexico City
How the casilla reads a ballot
A ballot put in the box without any box marked is a null vote.
LGIPE art. 288.2 a ↗Two or more boxes marked for parties that are not in coalition in that district: null.
LGIPE art. 288.2 b ↗Two or three boxes of parties in the same coalition: valid for the coalition's candidate, entered on its own row of the acta and later split among those parties.
LGIPE arts. 288.3, 290.2, 311.1 c; LGPP art. 87.13 ↗A name in the box for non-registered candidates is recorded separately; it counts in the total cast, not in the valid vote that shares list seats.
LGIPE art. 291.1 c ↗Coalition votes count “para cada uno de los partidos políticos para todos los efectos” (LGIPE art. 12.2), so the shares count toward each party's list seats, its 3% threshold and its public funding. In 2014 the Supreme Court struck down the clause of LGPP art. 87.13 that would have kept them out of the list-seat count.
From abroad · voto de mexicanas y mexicanos residentes en el extranjero
Citizens living abroad may vote for President and senators, and for governor where their state's constitution allows it (LGIPE art. 329.1). They must first register for the list of residents abroad, and may vote by post, in person at modules in embassies or consulates, or electronically over the internet (art. 329.2–3).
In 2024 INE offered all three: postal, internet, and in-person voting at 23 consulates. By INE's preliminary figures about three in four of the votes came by internet (press reports, secondary). Because the 2027 federal election is only for deputies, it has no federal ballot abroad; where a state's law provides for it, residents abroad may vote for its governor.
INE · voto desde el extranjero ↗Access
Voters who cannot read, or cannot mark the ballot themselves, may be helped by someone of their choice (LGIPE art. 279.2).
INE provides Braille templates to place over the ballot, and Braille labels on the urnas (INE equality unit, 2024).
In 2024, for the first time nationally, INE collected early votes at home from people with disabilities who cannot travel, and from people in pre-trial detention in 216 prisons, who had registered in advance (press reports of INE figures).