This study focuses on the second half of the Mexican nineteenth century, a period when Mexico had an important opportunity to begin a new democratic political era. Despite this chance to create and build a democratic regime, a government of this kind was never consolidated due to the continuous practice of elections manipulation as well as the common practice of presidential reelection. The article covers the years 1867-1888, and it examines the performance of the main political protagonists -particularly that of presidents Benito Juarez, Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, Porfirio Diaz and Manuel Gonzalez. It also pays attention to the conformation of the different Congresses and their links to the federal government, as well as to the peculiarities of electoral dynamics. We think that during this period the liberal governments and Mexican society had the possibility of creating an electoral culture based on three elements: competition between political parties, citizen participation, and the use of the press as a tool to promote political action. The presence of these three elements would have given credibility to the electoral processes and legitimacy to the triumphant authorities. At the same time, we propose that the expectation to build a democracy in the XIX century was definitely destroyed in 1888 with the implementation of the reelection system, a system that postponed the building of electoral democracy until the XX century.