Too Close To Call

Mexico takes a page from the U.S. playbook, with a tight presidential race that won't be resolved on Election Day. (At least, that's what the wire services are saying at 2:30 in the morning. This could all be resolved by the time you read this.)

It's down to two candidates, current President Vicente Fox's fellow rightie, Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) member Felipe Calderón, and left-winger Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD). Both claim victory. From the Mexico City bureau of the San Antonio Express-News:

The Federal Electoral Institute said counting could continue until Wednesday, leaving the nation on edge.

The election — largely cast as a battle over whether the next president should represent the interests of the rich or the poor — was expected to be tight as Mexicans decide whether this nation should join Latin America's shift to the political left.

Meanwhile, Mexican citizens in the U.S., who had the chance to cast absentee ballots for the first time, ignore the opportunity, Reuters news service tells us:

Of the estimated 6 million to 7 million Mexicans of voting age in the United States, only 40,000 registered to vote by mail in Mexico's presidential election on Sunday -- a lower number than expected after years of calls for a foreign vote.

So what does the winner have to look forward to? He inherits Mexico's bloody (and ultimately unwinnable) drug war.

Anyway, it should prove interesting. Let's just hope Mexico has better election workers than Florida did in 2000.