Puerto Rican Political Status: Developments of Recent Years

The above video is a brief but accurate overview of Puerto Rico's political status as of 2007. Since the video had been released in 2007, it is slightly dated in some respects. For one, the act mentioned, H.R. 900, did not develop into anything and it has been re-introduced as H.R. 2499 in May of 2009 by Jose E. Serrano of New York. The contents of this new bill call for an open vote on Puerto Rico's status conducted as follows:

One question asks people to vote whether the status quo should remain or if some change should occur. If the status quo option gains a majority, the vote will take place again after eight more years in order to keep re-evaluating the position of the island voters to ensure their needs for self-determination are met.

The next question goes into detail about what sort of change needs to be done. There are 3 options presented: Statehood, Free Association on Sovereign nations not subject to the Territory Clause of the United States (a clause in which Puerto Rico is subject to currently and which is in large part to blame for why it is considered a colony by some), or independence. The territorial clause gives the United States ultimate sovereignty over Puerto Rico meaning U.S. Congress can legislate for Puerto Rico whenever it deems the circumstances appropriate as well as revoke any privileges including citizenship at its discretion.

These elections, known as plebiscites, would enable anyone capable of voting for regular Puerto Rican elections to be eligible to vote in the plebiscite. Also, all United States citizens who lack the residency requirement would be allowed to partake via an absentee ballot. The inclusion of mainland Puerto Ricans is a new concept for the plebiscite, which previously had "succeeded in the exclusion of Puerto Rico's huge diaspora from any role in the vote." (Flores, 222)

What makes this plebiscite different from ones in the past? For one, it would have United States recognition and that would mean any result from it would be honored. This has not been true in the past and may have contributed to the lackluster voter turnouts in 1993 and 1998 where any winning result was not guaranteed to ultimately matter. Former Puerto Rican President of the Senate Kenneth McClintock noted in the video that regular Puerto Rican elections had 83-85% voter turnout while the plebiscites hovered around only 70% participation. According to him, many interviewed about why they did not vote replied with the rationale that their vote simply would not matter. (Fennell) Also, in those plebiscites there was confusion over some of the options leading to worthless results. In 1998 there were 5 options: Territorial Commonwealth, Free Association, Statehood, Independent, and none of the above. In these plebiscites the results were (numbers supplied by Report from President's Task Force on Puerto Rico's Status December 2005, page 4):

1993:
Commonwealth 826,326 (48.6%)
Statehood 788,296 (46.3%)
Independence 75,620 (4.4%)
Blank and Void 10,748 (0.7%)

1998:
“Territorial” Commonwealth 993 (0.06%)
Free Association 4536 (0.29%)
Statehood 728157 (46.49%)
Independence 39838 (2.54%)
None of the Above 787900 (50.30%)
Blank and Void Ballots 4846 (0.31%)

The Map on the right (click to make larger) illustrates the result distribution of statehood (blue) and "none of the above" (red) in the 1998 plebiscite. Very few areas were overwhelmingly in favor of one over the other with Sabanas Grande in the Southwest having the largest gap with "none of the above" receiving 60.5% of the vote compared to the just 36.9% in favor of statehood (Kireev).

The Task Force concluded that the prevalence of people voting for "none of the above" was due to the Popular Democratic Party (PDP), which favored continued commonwealth status but was weary of the "territorial" modifier. As a result, "none of the above," an option that does not even address the question, was the winner. Nonetheless, it is interesting to see that statehood and commonwealth were preferred by a large margin over independence.

Juan Flores, a Puerto Rican scholar, offered another perspective on this 1998 plebiscite in his book From Bomba to Hip-Hop. He not only saw the phrasing of the questions as problematic, but also took exception with the entire process. Flores wrote "the devious tactic of framing the country's political alternatives as a multiple-choice question backfired" and that saw the splitting of the commonwealth option into two categories and the addition of "none of the above" as a way of "further marginalizing the independence vote." (Flores, 222) The merits of this claim are debatable because independence did not receive a substantial vote in the more basic 1993 plebiscite. The independence voice was echoed in the video, however, by many people in 1993 saying "I am Puerto Rican, not American," but it was then made clear that these were a minority speaking and their sentiments were not shared by the majority of Puerto Rico. (Fennell)

Nevertheless, "none of the above" generated differing interpretations between the political parties favoring independence, statehood, and commonwealth status as a result of its vagueness. Statehood saw the 1998 plebiscite as a victory for them because "none of the above" was taken to be the equivalent of a null vote; pro-Commonwealth PDP leaders interpreted it to mean an objection to statehood and thus in their favor; and pro-Independence "[noted] the defiance implicit in the favored option [and] took the outcome as demonstration of the generalized public distaste among Puerto Ricans for the corrupt machinations of colonial politics as such." (Flores 223)

Kenneth McClintock argued that statehood is a necessary step for Puerto Rico to emerge from its poor economic conditions where the per capita annual income is under $6000 and it desperately needs the economic model of states within the United States. This model includes tax credits for the working-poor to keep them working and the expansion of the full range of social services, such as social security, to include the island of Puerto Rico. He cited Hawaii and Alaska as examples of the economic benefits that could be had by inclusion into the United States. Puerto Rico would also be able to vote and have a voting member in US Congress if it were included, but they would also now be subject to federal taxation. (Fennell)


Juan Flores noted that these positive feelings about the addition of Puerto Rico as the fifty-first state were not shared by all on the mainland. Don Feder of the Boston Herald referred to Puerto Rico as a "Caribbean Dogpatch" that was "impoverished [and] crime-ridden" and laden with "non-English speakers." (Flores 224) Feder even classified Puerto Ricans within the United States as "unassimiliable" and extrapolated this to mean that Puerto Rico would then be "an unassimilable state." He used the slums where many Puerto Ricans live within the United States as an example of why he deemed the island a "dogpatch" and why it would be nonsensical to add Puerto Rico as a state. (Flores 225)

It is apparent that there is much conflict around what should happen with Puerto Rico's status in Puerto Rico itself. However, this conflict also exists within the United States. A 1998 Gallup Poll conducted in the United States had the following results (Gallup, 40):

Statehood 30%
Independent 28%
Remain US Territory 26%
Other/No Opinion 16%

This poll also found that despite the clear differences in opinion, 60% of respondents would accept an outcome decided by a Puerto Rican plebiscite. (Gallup, 41) But conducting a plebiscite with both U.S. Congressional support as well as support from Puerto Rico has been a struggle, as seen in the above examples in 1993 and, especially, 1998. Issues such as the wording of the choices and who can and who cannot participate need to be resolved before any plebiscite will have a chance at succeeding.

H.R. 2499 addresses most of these issues, but the problem has been getting U.S. Congress to make any semblance of movement on the issue. Most recent attempts, such as H.R. 900 mentioned in the video, have simply stalled and not amounted to any change or even substantial discussion within U.S. Congress. H.R. 2499 does have some support within the House of Representatives, with 60 more cosponsors than H.R. 900, and it did get referred to the House of Representatives for discussion by the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources. This exhibits that there is a chance for this bill to finally get the discussion necessary for some form of action to be taken concerning Puerto Ricos status.



Sources:

CN8 TV. Art Fennell Reports- Puerto Rico: the 51st State?. Retrieved December 1, 2009, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuU5KKYvqpw.

"Demonstrating for Statehood, San Juan, Puerto Rico." Photograph. (n.d.) From The Fact Checker. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/02/will_puerto_rico_decide_everyt.html (Accessed December 13, 2009).

Flores, Juan. From Bomba to Hip-Hop. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000. pp. 222-225.

Gallup, George Horace. The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 1998. Wilmington: The Gallup Organization, 1999. pp. 40-41.

Kireev, Alex. "Puerto Rico Status Plebiscite 1998." Electoral Geography 2.0. http://www.electoralgeography.com/new/en/countries/p/puerto-rico/puerto-rico-status-plebiscite-1998.html (Accessed December 13, 2009).

President's Task Force on Puerto Rico's Political Status. Report by the President's Task Force on Puerto Rico's Political Status, December 2005. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 2005.

Kireev, Alex. "Puerto Rico Status Plebiscite 1998." Map. From Electoral Geography 2.0. http://www.electoralgeography.com/new/en/countries/p/puerto-rico/puerto-rico-status-plebiscite-1998.html (Accessed December 13, 2009).

U.S. Congress. House. Puerto Rico Democracy Act of 2009. 111th Cong., 1st sess., H.R. 2499.