El voto directo en Chihuahua: viejas y nuevas prácticas de control político electoral en el cantón Balleza, 1858-1864

The establishment of the direct vote in Chihuahua after the promulgation of the local constitution of 1858 and subsequent electoral laws modified the forms of organization of electoral processes but, above all, changed the rules of the political game that unleashed the elections. For the groups interested in the transfer of power, the objective remained the same, occupying the representative positions, only now they would have to interact with a wider universe of voters and political actors, because under the direct voting system, the vote was not hierarchized in degrees of election, as in indirect voting, and the result of the election would be defined by the sum of votes of all citizens. This change forced candidates for election to a greater effort to achieve the mobilization of the electorate, through the use of their clientelistic networks, taking advantage of the power and authority that they had, and through the attributions that the same electoral regulation had given them. This explains, as seen in the cantón Balleza elections, why the direct vote, although it forced to interact with the world of the electorate in a different way, did not endanger the local political control got by the political chiefs, the mayors of the municipalities, and the groups and factions that supported them; it also explains that, despite the dispersion of the vote that is registered in the electoral records, the list of winners to occupy the election positions kept the individuals belonging to the local power groups.