9 pollsters missing in Mexico

MORELIA, Mexico – A second Mexican polling firm reported three workers missing Tuesday in a western state plagued by drug violence, two days after six workers from another survey company vanished from the same place.

The nine disappearances in an area of Michoacan state considered a stronghold of warring drug cartels are being treated as kidnappings, according to a Michoacan state government spokesman.

They also raise concerns that drug violence could interfere with the state’s Nov. 13 gubernatorial election and possibly Mexico’s 2012 presidential race as well.

“What are we going to do with our poll watchers? What are we going to with the precinct workers?” said Fausto Vallejo, the gubernatorial candidate for the Institutional Revolutionary Party in Michoacan.