MEXICAN NATIONALS URGED TO REGISTER TO VOTE FEW IMMIGRANTS HAVE SIGNED UP WITH DEADLINE LOOMING.

Byline: Rachel Uranga Staff Writer

With a Sunday deadline for Mexican nationals to register to vote in the 2006 presidential election, local activists launched last-ditch efforts to register voters while Mexican officials ramped up an $8 million media blitz.

So far, registration among the estimated 4 million eligible immigrants living in the United States is abysmal - 13,500 as of Monday - and many activists say the first election effort outside the country is failing.

``We feel disillusioned,'' said Raul Sandoval of Burbank, who heads the Asociacion Pro-Mejoras Emiliano Zapata. But Mexican officials say their latest efforts to increase the voting rolls has yielded thousands of voters, many of whom returned to Mexico over the Christmas holiday.

On Saturday, Sandoval set out from Mary Immaculate Parish in Pacoima with a caravan of immigrants to register in Tijuana. ``We thought this process would be for everyone, but so many people can't vote.''

Of the busload of more than 40 immigrants who traveled to Mexico, less than a handful could register to vote. The problem was similar with other members of the caravan who left from Huntington Park on Saturday.

Echoing an oft-repeated complaint by activists, Sandoval blames constraining rules that require all those registering to vote to hold a Mexican electoral card, only issued in Mexico.

Immigrants illegally in the United States often don't have the card and simply can't obtain it because doing so would risk their status in the United States. Yet immigrants - legal or illegal - have a pervasive influence over their homeland, pumping billions back into the Mexican economy.

Even those who can return to Mexico must wait two weeks to obtain the card. Those who traveled over the weekend with Sandoval are unlikely to receive their electoral card in time to register.

Still, Sandoval will be holding another meeting at Mary Immaculate this week to decide whether to take a final busload to Tijuana.

Even with low registration numbers, Mexican activists like Sandoval who pushed for voting rights in the United States and have organized registration drives have shown considerable political muscle along the other side of the border.

``This shows the phenomenal development of the organized network of Mexican activist leaders and organizations here,'' said David Ayon, senior research associate at Loyola Marymount University and an expert in Mexican politics. ``They have developed their political skills here and agenda here and are making their case in Mexico.''

Last month, after increasing criticism by activists, Mexican officials set up 16 registration booths in border towns and dozens more in districts throughout the country to lure more nationals to register. The rolls doubled as droves of immigrants returned home for the holidays. About 20 percent of all those who registered did so in Mexico.

``We won't use the word happy, but we are satisfied with all the measures that the (Federal Election Institute) has taken to organize and facilitate the vote of Mexicans abroad,'' said Rosa Elba Arroyo, a spokeswoman at the Instituto Federal Electoral, noting the three-month period the institute had to organize the transnational election.

Rachel Uranga, [phone]

rachel.uranga(at)dailynews.com