Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello (C) and his wife Beatriz Rossello (R) greet voters as Puerto Ricans head to the polls on Sunday to decide whether they want their struggling U.S. territory to become the 51st U.S. state, in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico June 11, 2017. REUTERS/Alvin Baez
Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello (L) shows his ballot next to his wife Beatriz Rossello as Puerto Ricans head to the polls on Sunday to decide whether they want their struggling U.S. territory to become the 51st U.S. state, in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico June 11, 2017. REUTERS/Alvin Baez
A man casts his vote as Puerto Ricans head to the polls on Sunday to decide whether they want their struggling U.S. territory to become the 51st U.S. state, in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico June 11, 2017. The writing on the plastic curtains reads 'State Election Commission.' REUTERS/Alvin Baez
People line up to cast their votes at a polling station as Puerto Ricans head to the polls on Sunday to decide whether they want their struggling U.S. territory to become the 51st U.S. state, in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico June 11, 2017. REUTERS/Alvin Baez
Women set up a voting station at a school as Puerto Ricans head to the polls on Sunday to decide whether they want their struggling U.S. territory to become the 51st U.S. state, in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico June 11, 2017. REUTERS/Alvin Baez
People arrive to vote as Puerto Ricans head to the polls on Sunday to decide whether they want their struggling U.S. territory to become the 51st U.S. state, in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico June 11, 2017. REUTERS/Alvin Baez
A man walks out of a voting booth as Puerto Ricans head to the polls on Sunday to decide whether they want their struggling U.S. territory to become the 51st U.S. state, in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico June 11, 2017. REUTERS/Alvin Baez
Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello (C) shows his ballot paper next to his wife Beatriz Rossello as Puerto Ricans head to the polls on Sunday to decide whether they want their struggling U.S. territory to become the 51st U.S. state, in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico June 11, 2017. REUTERS/Alvin Baez
Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello (C) arrives to vote as Puerto Ricans head to the polls on Sunday to decide whether they want their struggling U.S. territory to become the 51st U.S. state, in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico June 11, 2017. REUTERS/Alvin Baez
A polling station is seen at a school as Puerto Ricans head to the polls on Sunday to decide whether they want their struggling U.S. territory to become the 51st U.S. state, in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico June 11, 2017. REUTERS/Alvin Baez
Ballot papers are seen at a polling station as Puerto Ricans head to the polls on Sunday to decide whether they want their struggling U.S. territory to become the 51st U.S. state, in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico June 11, 2017. REUTERS/Alvin Baez
FILE PHOTO: The flags of the U.S. and Puerto Rico fly outside the Capitol building in San Juan, Puerto Rico May 4, 2017. REUTERS/ Alvin Baez
SAN JUAN The economically struggling U.S. island territory of Puerto Rico voted overwhelmingly on Sunday in favor of becoming the 51st state, although turnout was low and adding another star to the U.S. flag likely faces an uphill battle in Congress.
A government website for the non-binding referendum, Puerto Rico's fifth such plebiscite since 1967, showed 97 percent supported statehood. Only 23 percent of the 2.2 million eligible voters participated in the vote.
Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello campaigned for statehood as the best avenue to boost future growth for the island, which has $70 billion in debt, a 45 percent poverty rate, woefully underperforming schools and near-insolvent pension and health systems.
"From today going forward, the Federal government will no longer be able to ignore the voice of the majority of the American citizens in Puerto Rico," Rossello said in a statement.
"It would be highly contradictory for Washington to demand democracy in other parts of the world, and NOT respond to the legitimate right to self-determination that was exercised today in the American territory of Puerto Rico," he added.
Puerto Rico's hazy political status, dating back to its 1898 acquisition by the United States from Spain, has contributed to the economic crisis that pushed it last month into the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.
"I voted for statehood," Armando Abreu, a 74-year-old retiree, said after voting. "Even if it's still a long way off in the distance, it's our only hope."
Those in favor of statehood for the mainly Spanish-speaking Caribbean island hope the new status would put the territory on equal standing with the 50 U.S. states, giving them more access to federal funds and the right to vote for U.S. president.
Under the current system, Puerto Rico's 3.5 million American citizens do not pay federal taxes, vote in presidential elections or receive proportionate federal funding on programs like the Medicaid health insurance system for the poor. The U.S. government oversees policy and financial areas such as infrastructure, defense and trade.
Rossello will ask Congress to respect the result, but Puerto Rico is seen as a low priority in Washington.
The island's two main opposition parties boycotted the vote, which gave Puerto Ricans three options: becoming a U.S. state; remaining a territory; or becoming an independent nation, with or without some continuing political association with the United States.
Puerto Rico's former governor, Rafael Hernandez Colon, said in a statement: "A contrived plebiscite fabricated an artificial majority for statehood by disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of Commonwealth supporters."
Rather than heading to the polls, some 500 Puerto Ricans marched on the streets of San Juan, waving Puerto Rico's flag and burning the American flag while chanting in support of independence.
"This is a bogus plebiscite. Our future is independence. We need to be able to decide our own fate," said Liliana Laboy, one of the organizers of the protest.
Boycotters were also angry about the costly referendum at a time when over 400 schools have closed and many Puerto Ricans are struggling to make ends meet. Schools where voting took place were in poor condition, with cracked paint and bare-bones playgrounds.
Puerto Rico spent an estimated $8 million on the campaign and election process, according to a government spokesman.
Virreinatos on June 12nd, 2017 at 02:52 UTC »
I already posted this on a different thread in r/politics, but I feel I should do so here again:
Here’s some context that may explain this outcome and why the boycott ‘not to participate’ might be relevant and meaningful.
It seems every time the Pro-Statehood party comes in they make a referendum to determine what the island wants. An opinion poll if you will. The ballot then gets ‘Statehood’ and ‘Independence’.
The real options, however, are Statehood or Commonwealth, but the current Commonwealth is a mess and even the party that supports the Commonwealth thinks it should be modified. The problem is that the Commonwealth party hasn’t gotten their shit together on how to modify it. The Pro-Statehood party takes advantage of this mess.
In the 1998 Referendum, the original options were (1) Current Commonwealth, (2) Free Association (which no one had no idea what the hell that meant), (3) Statehood, and (4) Independence. This was seen as an attempt to split the Commonwealth party and after much bickering they added a 5th option: ‘None of the above’, and the Commonwealth rallied behind this one. The result was that Statehood got 46.5%, ‘None of the Above’ got 50.3%.
2012 it was another clusterfudge. There was no ‘None of the Above’ option, but the Commonwealth supporters were not happy with what was supposed to be their option. Out of 1,878,969 people what went to vote, 834,191 voted for Statehood. That’s 44% of people that went to vote that voted for Statehood.
This is where it gets even more interesting. 515,115 of those ballots were empty of invalid, only 454,786 voted for Free Association. People wanted to vote, but by dropping it blank, they were trying to send a message of ‘this is bullshit’.
Statehood: 834,191
Free Association: 454,786
Blank of Invalid: 515,115
Total ballots: 1,878,969
Of the available options, Statehood got 61% of the votes if you discount blank ballots, but only 44% if you consider that the act of going to vote is sending a message and voicing your opinion. So basically, depending on how you read things, Statehood both won AND/OR lost.
So now in 2017 the island is doing it all over again. So saying ‘fuck this shit, I’m staying home’ is a natural progression. It is important to note that Puerto Rico has historically a very high turnout. In 2012 turnout was 78%. A turnout of 27% in the 2017 is a very big deal when you take that into account.
One of the political parties actively campaigned for the boycott as a means to send the message that it was all a pointless waste of time. (Remember that the U.S. has not been involved in this process and has not agreed to follow up on the results.)
So again, Statehood both won AND/OR lost, depending on how you want to look at it.
ScuffySquintz on June 12nd, 2017 at 02:21 UTC »
This is a ploy to sell new flags!
Not_Cleaver on June 11st, 2017 at 22:07 UTC »
Interesting. The turnout was way too low to actually change their status though. I think two-thirds of total voters with at least 60% turnout have to vote in favor of statehood or independence to actually change the status quo.
While 97% of 485,000 is impressive, 23 turnout is way too low.