Elections in Chacala!!!

Yesterday Guillermo, owner of the newish little white hotel (Casa Chacala) on the paved road and currently very involved in the water situation in Chacala, came by handing out papers and gave me two papers. One was a summary of the monthly expenses for the water system for September, about 8000 pesos again. I really appreciate the water boards efforts at transparency.

The other was a full paper letter from Lalo, the current "judge" in Chacala, whose term ended today. It was a short term because Lalo replaced Cundo, his predecessor in an apparently impromptu election about six months ago.

Anyway, I asked a local resident what the letter said, and she said "where did you get this?" sort of angrily. I said that Guillermo had given it to me with the water summary and that person started reading it, but didn't tell me what it said, and did say:

• there was an election for the "judico" position
• the election was tomorrow (Sunday) and
• that the election was announced at the water meeting last week.
• that Juan (Concha's husband) was the only person interested in running for office, and wasn't it sad no one wanted to run.

Then this morning I ran into that same person, who told me that:

• both the Judico and the Town President (currently held by Laura Sura) positions were open

• and that Isreal (Chata's husband), Juan (Concha's husband) , and Benico (husband on the Aurora without a Techo rental) are all running for office, but it wasn't clear which office.
  
• 
  
• I wasn't clear if the currrent officerholders wanted to retain their positions or not. My informant seemed to be saying that now Lala wanted to be town president.

• It wasn't clear if Lalo and Laura were also running for their current offices.
  

I knew Lalo was in office but I didn't remember that Laura was the current President. When I ran into Laura this aftenoon, she told me that the election had happened, but the votes weren't counted yet, which struck me as odd. How many votes could there be in a town this size?
And who counts the votes?

I am probably just a little paraniod. Many people may not remember this, but the International Commission that monitors elections all over the world as asked by the Mexican Election Commission to oversee all the elections all over Mexico for the election where Vicente Fox won the Presidency. The Commission published a report, which is on the web. It described the election process in Chacala, which is probably why I wondered about this election. Anyway, still haven't heard to results. Not that it's any of my business. Just curious I guess.

LATER:
Juan was elected to the "Judge" position and Lalo is the other official. Now I am being told that it isn't "presidente" but something else more like an informal but elected and unpaid representative. Laura, who formerly held that position, was not interested in running for that office and didn't. I noticed that Tuesday afternoon there was a meeting of some sort at the restaurant across from the deposito and Juan and Lalo were walking over to the meeting together. Don't know what the meeting was.