Mexico Elections and Electoral System Explained

MEXICO · ELECTIONS

Mexico votes every three and six years on a mixed system run by an independent institute and judged by a special court. Here is how it works, as of November 2026.

Mexico elections follow a fixed calendar, a mixed electoral system and an independent referee, and the rules were amended again in 2026. This guide explains how Mexico votes, who runs the count and what comes next, as of November 2026.

Voters choose a president and 128 senators every six years and 500 deputies every three years. The next national vote is on Sunday 6 June 2027, for all 500 deputies and 17 governorships.

More coverage sits on the Rio Times Mexico page, and the guide to Mexico describes the country as a whole. The guides to political key players and the power structure cover who holds office.

The guide to the judicial reform covers the courts. The power map of The Rio Times Latin America Power Index ranks Mexico among 14 countries.

Mexico Elections at a Glance

Mexican elections rest on three pillars: written rules, an institute that runs the vote and a court that settles disputes. The rules were adjusted by reforms published in 2026.

The list below defines the main terms in plain English. Each appears again where it first matters.

• INE. The National Electoral Institute, which runs federal elections and keeps the voter list.
• TEPJF. The Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary, the final judge of election disputes.
• LGIPE. The general law on electoral institutions and procedures, which sets the calendar and the count.
• PREP. The preliminary results programme, whose figures are informational and not final.
• OPL. The public electoral bodies of the states, which run local races.
• Plurinominal seats. Seats filled from party lists in proportion to votes, not from districts.

How Mexico Votes: The Electoral System

Mexico elects its president directly, in one round. The Constitution calls the vote direct, and no runoff rule appears in the texts read for this guide.

The president serves six years from 1 October and can never hold the job again. Article 83 bars anyone who held it, elected, interim or substitute, from returning.

The Chamber of Deputies has 500 seats: 300 won in single-member districts and 200 filled from party lists in five regions. A party must run in at least 200 districts to register its lists.

A party needs 3% of the valid list vote to receive list seats, and it loses its national registration below that line. No party can hold more than 300 seats.

A party’s share of seats also cannot exceed its share of votes by more than eight points. The text carves out one exception, for a party whose district wins alone exceed that limit.

The Senate has 128 seats. Each state and Mexico City elects three, two for the winner and one for the runner-up, plus 32 from a national list.

Mexicans can vote from age 18. The voter list stood at 98,329,591 names for the 2024 election, and election day is treated as a non-working day nationwide.

Mexicans abroad can vote for president through a separate list. In 2024 that list held 223,970 people, with 151,989 on internet voting, 56,257 on postal voting and 15,724 voting in person.

The Constitution also allows a recall vote on the president. It is valid only if at least 40% of listed voters take part, and an absolute majority must decide.

The Election Calendar and the Next Vote

Federal ordinary elections fall on the first Sunday of June. Deputies are elected every three years, and the Senate and the presidency every six.

• Sunday 2 June 2024. President, Senate and Chamber of Deputies.
• Sunday 1 June 2025. The extraordinary judicial election set by the 2024 reform.
• Sunday 6 June 2027. All 500 deputies and 17 governorships, with local posts on the same day.
• Sunday 4 June 2028. The second judicial election, set by a decree of 2 June 2026.
• Sunday 2 June 2030. The next presidential and Senate vote under the first-Sunday rule.

INE’s website names Sunday 6 June 2027 as the next election day. It lists the 2026-2027 process as covering 17 governorships, and says voters can collect new credentials until 28 February 2027.

The law sets campaigns at 60 days in a year when only deputies are elected. It sets 90 days when a president is on the ballot, so the 2027 campaign starts roughly two months before the vote.

From 2030, legislators cannot be re-elected in consecutive terms, a rule published on 1 April 2025. A ban on nepotism in candidacies also starts in 2030.

A decree of 7 October 2026 requires presidents and governors to hold only Mexican nationality. It applies from the 2028 process, so it does not touch the 2027 vote.

Who Runs Elections: INE and the Courts

INE organises federal elections, keeps the voter list and runs the official count. Its General Council has one president and ten councillors, each serving nine years.

The Chamber of Deputies picks them by a two-thirds vote, from names put forward by a five-person committee. Three committee members come from the Chamber and two from the human rights commission, with lotteries as a fallback.

INE’s General Council designated councillor Blanca Cruz provisional president on 27 October 2026, after president Guadalupe Taddei resigned. The law lets the councillors name a provisional president and tell the Chamber.

A permanent president needs two thirds of the Chamber, so the choice needs wide support. Until then the council keeps working under its provisional head.

Local races are run by state bodies, the OPLs. On 29 October 2026, INE designated 15 local electoral councillors and two OPL presidents.

The electoral law says polling-station officials are citizens, drawn by lot from the voter list. In 2024, 170,061 stations were installed, and their officials count the ballots on the spot.

The Electoral Tribunal judges disputes, and its seven-magistrate Sala Superior makes the final count of the presidential vote. That role is set in Article 99 of the Constitution, and Gilberto Bátiz García has presided over the Sala since November 2025.

A 2023 package of changes known as Plan B was struck down by the Supreme Court. The ruling was published on 24 November 2023, and older text returned in the provisions it struck down.

Parties and Blocs

Six parties took the votes in 2024, and the list below gives their full names and the leaders INE shows. INE also lists two newer parties, PAZ and SOMOS, registered on 25 June 2026.

• Morena. President: Ariadna Montiel Reyes.
• PAN. National Action Party; president: Jorge Romero Herrera.
• PVEM. Mexican Ecologist Green Party; executive secretary: Pilar Guerrero Rubio.
• PRI. Institutional Revolutionary Party; president: Rafael Alejandro Moreno Cárdenas.
• MC. Citizens’ Movement; coordinator: Jorge Álvarez Máynez.
• PT. Labour Party, led by a national coordinating commission.

In 2024, Morena, PVEM and PT ran together as “Sigamos Haciendo Historia” behind Sheinbaum. PAN, PRI and the Party of the Democratic Revolution ran as “Fuerza y Corazón por México” behind Gálvez, while MC ran alone.

The 3% rule makes each election a survival test for small parties. A party below that line loses its national registration.

The caps on seats and on overrepresentation limit how far one bloc can outrun its vote in the Chamber. They do not stop a large coalition from reaching the majorities that pass laws.

Changing the Constitution takes two thirds of the members present in Congress and a majority of the state legislatures. That bar is why the 2027 Chamber vote matters for any bloc planning further reforms.

In the Senate, the first-minority seat guarantees the runner-up in each state one of three seats. The national list of 32 adds proportionality on top of that.

A presidential candidate must be Mexican by birth, at least 35 and resident for the year before the vote. From the 2028 process, a candidate must also hold no other nationality.

How Results Are Counted and Disputed

Counting starts at the polling station on election night. The station officials open the box, count the ballots and record the totals on a tally sheet that goes to INE.

Two early-number tools follow, the quick count and the PREP. The law calls PREP results preliminary and strictly informational.

The official count starts at 08:00 on the Wednesday after the vote, which will be 9 June 2027. The 300 district councils open the packages and compare each tally sheet with their copy.

Where figures differ, a sheet is missing or the sheet shows clear alterations, the council recounts the votes. The Supreme Court restored the older recount text in 2023 after striking down the Plan B version.

In 2024 the district councils compared 54,212 tally sheets, or 31.77% of the total, and recounted 116,403 packages, or 68.23%. The Electoral Tribunal’s count followed on 14 August 2024.

Parties can challenge results at the Electoral Tribunal through a challenge called a juicio de inconformidad. In 2024 it resolved all 240 on 8 August, ruling some inadmissible and confirming the results in the rest.

The Tribunal dated its declaration of the winner 20 August 2024, and the presidential term starts on 1 October. If a court annuls an election or the winners prove ineligible, the law calls an extraordinary election within 45 days.

The Latest Results: The 2024 Presidential Vote

The Electoral Tribunal’s count gave Claudia Sheinbaum 35,924,519 votes, or 59.76%. Xóchitl Gálvez followed with 16,502,697 votes, or 27.45%.

Jorge Álvarez Máynez took 6,204,710 votes, or 10.32%. Null ballots reached 1,400,144, or 2.33%, and write-ins for unregistered candidates 83,114, or 0.14%.

In all, 60,115,184 votes were counted from a voter list of 98,329,591, which is a turnout of about 61.1%. Sheinbaum finished about 19.4 million votes ahead of Gálvez.

In June 2025, voters elected judges in an extraordinary vote. INE estimated on election day that between 12.57% and 13.32% of listed voters took part, using a sample of polling stations.

The transitional text has INE count the votes and issue certificates, with seats assigned alternately to women and men, a woman first. The final official turnout figure was not confirmed.

The June 2027 vote is the first for the Chamber of Deputies since 2024. It is also the first national vote under the electoral law as amended on 2 June 2026.

What It Means for US Readers

Investors should track the 2027 deputies’ vote, since the Chamber passes the budget and the laws that shape business rules. The date is fixed, but the campaign and any coalition deals are not.

Mexicans living in the United States can register to vote from abroad, and the 2024 abroad list held about 224,000 people. Their number is small next to a voter list of 98.3 million.

Travellers and companies should plan around Sunday 6 June 2027, a national non-working day under the electoral law. Local rules on events and alcohol sales vary and were not checked for this guide.

The guide to the USMCA trade pact and the guide to US-Mexico relations cover the trade and security tracks. Mexican election dates do not set their schedules.

What Prediction Markets Say

Polymarket, where users bet real money, runs a market on whether Claudia Sheinbaum is out as president by 31 December 2026. It showed 2.95% for yes on 3 November, 7:17 a.m. ET.

About US$41,200 has traded on that contract and about US$293,600 across the event, so the market is thin. The Constitution’s Article 84 says that in the last four years of a term Congress names a substitute to finish it.

Why we show this: prediction markets turn real-money bets into a live probability that moves within minutes of the news, which is why investors, campaigns and newsrooms in the United States now follow them closely. We show them next to polls and official results, never instead of them.

What Is Not Known

The final official turnout and results of the June 2025 judicial election were not confirmed. The reason Guadalupe Taddei gave for resigning from the INE presidency was not confirmed either.

Whether the Chamber has set a date to name a permanent INE president was not confirmed. Seat counts of each party in the Chamber and Senate are not given because no official page could be read.

Whether another electoral reform is pending was not confirmed, and the texts read run to the 2026 amendments. Whether Gilberto Bátiz García still presides over the Tribunal was last checked in its session record of 5 November 2025.

The exact start date of the 2027 campaign and the full list of local contests were not confirmed. The count of polling stations for 2027 was not published in the pages read.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often does Mexico hold national elections?

Deputies are elected every three years, and the president and senators every six. Ordinary federal elections fall on the first Sunday of June.

When is the next election in Mexico?

The next national vote is on Sunday 6 June 2027, for all 500 deputies and 17 governorships. The next presidential election falls on the first Sunday of June 2030.

How are Mexican deputies and senators chosen?

Of 500 deputies, 300 win districts and 200 come from regional party lists. Of 128 senators, 96 come from state tickets and 32 from a national list.

Who runs elections in Mexico?

The National Electoral Institute (INE) runs federal elections and the count, and state bodies run local races. The Electoral Tribunal settles disputes and makes the final presidential count.

How many votes did Claudia Sheinbaum win in 2024?

She won 35,924,519 votes, or 59.76%, according to the Electoral Tribunal’s count. Xóchitl Gálvez took 27.45% and Jorge Álvarez Máynez 10.32%.

Can a Mexican president be re-elected?

A president cannot be re-elected, and the bar is absolute. Article 83 bars anyone who held the post, elected, interim or substitute, from holding it again.

Can Mexicans abroad vote?

Yes, Mexicans abroad can vote for president by post, internet or in person after registering. About 224,000 people were on the abroad list in 2024.

Sources: Political Constitution of the United Mexican States (Chamber of Deputies, text with reforms to 7 October 2026); General Law on Electoral Institutions and Procedures (Chamber of Deputies, text with reforms to 2 June 2026); Electoral Tribunal, Sala Superior, presidential election count and declaration of validity (SUP-EEP-1/2024, 14 August 2024); National Electoral Institute (INE), General Council; INE, national political parties; Electoral Tribunal, Sala Superior session record (5 November 2025); INE website; Polymarket (Claudia Sheinbaum out as President of Mexico markets) (all accessed 3 November 2026).