Mexican voters will face long ballots and unfamiliar candidates in first ever judicial election

For the first time in history, voters in Mexico will cast their ballots for justices, judges and magistrates in an election set to overhaul the nation’s judiciary.

Sunday’s election will decide 881 federal judicial positions nationwide, including the nine seats on Mexico’s reconstituted Supreme Court. In addition, Baja California is among 19 of 32 states holding local elections, with nearly 200 judicial positions up for grabs in the state.

“This has never been done before,” said Luis Alberto Hernández, head of the Baja California State Electoral Institute, an autonomous body that had to organize the special election in record time and on a reduced budget.

The unprecedented election is the result of a controversial judicial reform package pushed by former President Andrés Manuel Ló