MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Checking some other news, Mexico's ruling party could see its power base collapse for the first time in seven decades. In today's national elections, polls show the opposition candidate as getting an even chance of winning the presidency. The outcome will affect both the Mexican and the U.S. economies. CNN's Jim Hill has more on that aspect of the story.</s>JIM HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the first time, Mexican citizens living in the U.S. have been given the OK to vote at more than 60 special polling places in Mexican border cities. Mexicans living in the U.S. have close ties with their home towns and altogether send an estimated $6 billion to their families in Mexico each year. They can also have strong influence on how their relatives vote.</s>EMILY EDMONDS, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO: They tend to favor the opposition precisely because they tend to be the disaffected that have left and are -- rather than, perhaps, voting, are voting with their feet by leaving the country.</s>HILL: The three leading candidates all promise "cambio," change, for Mexico, after a series of economic crises over the past two decades. (on camera): The U.S. shares a 2,000-mile border with Mexico, and now ranks the neighbor to its south as its second-biggest trading partner.</s>WAYNE CORNELIUS, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO: Our ability to sell our goods and services to Mexico is, of course, directly affected by the health of the Mexican economy, and in turn by the stability of the Mexican government.</s>HILL (voice-over): It's also believed a strong Mexican economy can help reduce illegal immigration to the U.S. The cross-border interest has even led two of the candidates to California. Vicente Fox, victory-signing his way through crowds in Fresno, and Cuauhtemoc Cardenas meeting the Spanish-language press in Los Angeles. A curious campaign blend of two nations, with an outcome that could affect both. Jim Hill, CNN, Los Angeles.
Today's Mexico Elections Could See Opposition Candidate Victorious