G&D inks major contract to supply Mexico’s new voting cards

Over the next five years, Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) is to supply Mexico with over 60 million voting cards. The Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE) is responsible for organizing all of Mexico’s elections. This independent public organization has commissioned the technology group’s Mexican subsidiary Giesecke y Devrient de México S.A. de C.V. (G&D Mexico) to manufacture and personalize the new voting cards. G&D Mexico will establish one card production center and two personalization centers in the country in collaboration with a partner company.

Mexico introduced voting cards around twenty years ago as the means to identify eligible voters. Since almost every adult possesses one, the voter ID counts as Mexico’s most important form of identification: not only must it be presented when voting, it is accepted as proof of identity by public authorities, banks and retailers throughout the country.
Mexico’s voting cards are renewed every ten years from the time of issue. Over the next five years, G&D Mexico will produce cards for over 60 million of the country’s 117 million citizens. Production will begin in November to enable the new generation of cards to begin being issued by the end of this year.
G&D will be responsible for the entire system integration and project management for the order, while the partner company will be in charge of the IT infrastructure as well as the security of buildings and facilities.
The new generation of cards, made primarily of Teslin, features a watermark, a photo of the cardholder and a range of modern security features to help prevent tampering and forgery.

“The new voting cards provide Mexico’s citizens with a practical form of identification that is also highly secure. A swift and reliable system for authenticating these new voting cards also helps to ensure that national elections run smoothly and properly,” says Oscar Marquez, General Manager and Director of the Board of G&D Mexico.