Voters turned away amid large turnout at Los Angeles Mexican consulate during historic election

While Mexico appears to be on its way toward electing the first female President in its history, voters at the Los Angeles consulate are reporting difficulties in their attempts to vote in the historic race.

While speaking to KTLA’s Shelby Nelson, voters expressed frustration in learning that the consulate, located on 2401 W 6th Street in L.A., only had 1,500 ballots available for those who hadn’t registered to vote online prior to the day of the election.

“It wasn’t organized. There wasn’t enough staff, there wasn’t attention for the elderly,” one voter told Nelson, translated from Spanish. “There weren’t a lot of things that we needed.”

Many voters waited in the pre-registered voters line for hours before realizing that there was a separate line for non-registered voters. By the time many of them realized the mistake, it was too late.

“A lot of people didn’t vote because there were only nine boxes, nine computers for 10,000 people,” one voter told Nelson, translated from Spanish. “They’re only open from 7 in the morning to 5 in the evening. It’s not enough time for everyone.”

The Mexican election was expected to see a large turnout, perhaps the biggest in the nation’s history, as two women were the leading nominees.

Former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum of the left-wing Morena party was leading the preliminary voting as of 10 p.m., according to the Associated Press. Only about 20% of the vote had been counted at the time of that update.