Proof of either their birth in Mexico or their naturalization
Some form of photo ID
Proof of their residence
Electoral system
Mexico is a federal republic, the electoral system is regulated by the Constitution of Mexico as well as the constitutions of the 32 federative entities. These constitutions have separation of powers into three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. The heads of executive and all members of legislature are open to for elections by the citizens. Officials of the judiciary are not open for election.[2]
The heads of government executive bodies are commonly directly elected with the popular vote for a six-year term. Terms of elected executives are non-renewable, seeking to be reelected is forbidden by the constitutions. The executive election is held through voting on a single plurality voting ballot for the candidate, and the winner is decided by first-past-the-post voting rule.
Article 2 of the Constitution of Mexico provides for the self-government of indigenous communities according to their "traditional customs" (Spanish: sistema de usos y costumbres).[4] This has resulted in several indigenous communities in Mexico maintaining local systems, notably those of Cherán, and areas under Councils of Good Government control.
Under the current Mexican electoral system, the president of Mexico is directly elected for a six-year non-renewable term. The 128 senators are elected for a six-year term. The 500 deputies are elected for a three-year term. The elections are synchronized that Mexican citizens elect the president, senators, and deputies at once every six years. A midterm election for the deputies will happen in the mid point of the six-year period. Federal elections are usually held in early June, July, or August of the year.
The last general election was held on 2 June 2024 for presidential, senate, and chamber of deputies elections. The next chamber of deputies election are expected to be held in 2027; while the next presidential election and senate election are expected to be held in 2030.
The president of Mexico (Spanish: Presidente de México) is elected for a six-year term by direct election of all Mexican citizens. The candidate who wins a plurality of votes is elected president. No president can serve more than a single term in office, therefore every presidential election in Mexico is a non-incumbent election.[2]
Candidates for president must be at least 35 years old. They must be Mexican citizens by birth, as must one of their parents. They must have been residents of Mexico for at least 20 years. They also cannot have been either the governor of a state or the chief of government of Mexico City for six months prior to the election.[5]
The Chamber of Deputies (Spanish: Cámara de Diputados) has 500 deputies (Spanish: diputados). The deputies are elected to a three-year term through a 2-ballot parallel voting system. [2][6] Deputies may serve up to four consecutive terms.[5]
200 plurinominal deputies (Spanish: diputados plurinominales) are elected by party-list votes in five 40-seat electoral regions (Spanish: circunscripciones electorales) using proportional representation method. Each electoral region contains multiple federative entities that considers the balance of total populations.
To be eligible to place candidates in the multi-seat districts a party must have candidates in at least 200 of the 300 single-seat districts and must win at least 2% of the vote in those elections. The 200 PR-seats are distributed based on the percentage of the total national votes earned by each party without taking into account the 300 plurality-seats (parallel voting). However, since 1996, a party cannot get more seats overall than 8% above its result nationally (i.e., to win 50% of the legislative seats, a party must win at least 42% of the vote nationwide). There are three exceptions on this rule: first, a party can only lose PR-seats due to this rule (and no plurality-seats); second, a party can never get more than 300 seats overall (even if it has more than 52% of the vote nationally); and third, a party can exceed this 8% rule if it wins the seats in the single-member districts.[2]
The Senate of the Republic (Spanish: Senado de la República), or Chamber of Senators (Spanish: Cámara de Senadores), has 128 senators (Spanish: senadores). The senators are elected to a six-year term through a 1-ballot mixed single vote system, where the single party-list vote is counted in the following two ways. [2][6] Senators may run for two consecutive terms.[5]
96 senators are elected from the 32 federative entities. Each federative entity elects 3 senators by mixed-member proportional representation, where two seats are awarded to the party with the most votes and one seat is awarded to the party with the second most votes.
Candidates for the Chamber of Senators must be registered voters at least 25 years old. They also must have been born in, or been residents of the states they are running in for at least six months.[5]
Other restrications
Electoral magistrates, the Secretary of the Electoral Tribunal, and the Executive Secretary and Executive Director of the INE must separate themselves from their positions for at least three years before seeking legislative office.[7]
The leader of a federative entity is officially named governor (Spanish: gobernador) for a Mexican state, and head of government (Spanish: Jefe/Jefa de Gobierno) for Mexico City. These officials are elected for a six-year non-renewable term by the citizens of that federative entity.
To be a governor or head of government:
Candidates born in the federative entity must have been a resident for three years previous to the election
Candidates born outside of the federative entity must have been residents for five years previous to the election
Candidates must be at least 30 years old
Candidates cannot have been a minister of any religion for five years previous to the election
Candidates cannot have been in the military or a head of public security forces for 90 days previous to the election
Candidates cannot have citizenship in any country other than Mexico
Each federative entity has a unicamerallegislature officially named congress (Spanish: congreso). Members of the congresses are called deputies (Spanish: diputados). All seats of the congress are elected to three-year terms in a mixed electoral system. Deputies can serve up to four consecutive terms.
For example, there are 75 seats in the Congress of the State of México. Forty-five seats are apportioned in direct elections in single-member districts and 30 are apportioned via proportional appointments. Political parties nominate their candidates for proportional appointments before the election. For a party to be eligible for proportional-appointment seats they must run candidates in at least 30 districts and receive at least 3% of the vote throughout the state.
Similar to the federal Chamber of Deputies, a party cannot have more than 8% more seats in the legislature than their percentage of state-wide votes (e.g., to win 50% of the legislative seats, a party must win at least 42% of the vote statewide) unless that excess was earned in the direct elections.
To be a deputy of the congress:
Candidates born in the federative entity must have been a resident for one year previous to the election
Candidates born outside of the federative entity must have been residents for three years previous to the election
Candidates must be at least 21 years old
Candidates cannot have been a minister of any religion for five years previous to the election
Candidates cannot have worked for any election commission for two years previous to the election
Candidates cannot have been a sitting municipal or federal legislator for 90 days previous to the election
Candidates cannot have been a sitting judge for 90 days previous to the election
Candidates cannot have been in the military or a head of public security forces for 90 days previous to the election
