2012 Puerto Rican status referendum

A referendum on the political status of Puerto Rico was held in Puerto Rico on November 6, 2012. Puerto Rico has been an unincorporated territory of the United States since the Spanish-American War in 1898.

In the referendum, Puerto Rican voters were asked (1) whether they agreed to continue with Puerto Rico's territorial status and (2) asked to indicate the political status they preferred from three possibilities: statehood, independence, or a sovereign nation in free association with the United States. 943,094 (54%) voted "No" on the first question, expressing themselves against maintaining the current political status, and 64,745 left the question blank. 472,674 voters left the second question blank. Of those who voted on the second question, 809,652 (61.13%) valid votes chose statehood, 441,505 (33.33%) of the valid votes chose free association, and 73,362 (5.54%) chose independence. The governor-elect Alejandro García Padilla and several other leaders who favor the present status had recommended voting "Yes" to the first question, and leaving the second question blank in protest to what they claimed was "an anti-democratic process" and "a trap".

Puerto Rico's nonvoting Resident Commissioner, Pedro Pierluisi, has said that he will "defend the people's decision" in Washington, D.C. and that he will introduce legislation in Congress to admit Puerto Rico to the Union. Although García Padilla has questioned the validity of the results, he has stated that he plans to go forward with what President Barack Obama had suggested, and convene a constituent assembly to resolve the status issue.

Previous referendums have been held on the island to decide on the political status of Puerto Rico, most recently in 1998.

Background

Puerto Rico has been an unincorporated territory of the United States since the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898. Although Puerto Ricans were granted United States citizenship with the 1917 Jones–Shafroth Act, they still cannot vote for the President of the United States, and their foreign policies are subject to the United States Congress.

In June 2011, the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization asked the United States to expedite the process for political status self-determination in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, unlike several other U.S. territories such as Guam, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, is not on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories. As it is not a state, its citizens do not have the right to full representation in the U.S. Congress. Although anyone born in Puerto Rico is a U.S. citizen, U.S. citizens living in Puerto Rico may not vote in presidential elections. On December 28, 2011, Governor Luis Fortuño authorized the referendum for November 6, 2012.

Support

Most of the leadership of the New Progressive Party (PNP) vouched for a state referendum to be held. Governor Fortuño, Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi, and the Mayor of San Juan, Jorge Santini, all supported the celebration of a state referendum. Originally, they presented a project which divided the process into two separate referendums: one in August to vote whether or not to continue with the current status, and a second one in November to choose one of several alternatives to the current status. This process was approved in a General Assembly of the party in October 2011.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Jenniffer González, also supported the project. In December 2011, the House approved the project for a state referendum to be held on November 2012, along with the general elections. The day before the elections, González said the opportunity to vote for statehood was "historic".

Juan Dalmau Ramírez, gubernatorial candidate for the Puerto Rico Independence Party (PIP) also defended the participation of supporters of Puerto Rican independence in the state referendum. Dalmau said that Puerto Rico "had a problem, which was the cancer of colonialism which doesn't allow us to develop ourselves." He also said that Puerto Ricans should take advantage of "every chance to overcome the colonial status" and criticized Alejandro García Padilla, President of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) for not supporting the process.

Opposition

The status referendum has also been criticized by members of all political parties, including the New Progressive Party (PNP) that proposed it. Former Governor of Puerto Rico Pedro Rosselló (from the PNP) said that the choices in the ballot were "confusing" and might cause "an indefinition that, in the end, will bring more of the same: the continuous status quo." Another former Governor from the PNP, Carlos Romero Barceló, argued that "the content and language of the formulas will confuse the voter."

Members of the other parties also criticized the referendum. Former Governor of Puerto Rico Rafael Hernández Colón from the PPD argued that the project "doesn't follow the recommendations of the White House report on Puerto Rico neither on its content, nor its date." He also criticized the definition used for the Estado Libre Asociado, which is the current status and the one his party defends. Hernández Colón recommended following the seventh recommendation on the White House report, which is to "work from the island to go to the White House with a project for Congress, to push them into establish real status options for the voters to choose from." Another member of the PPD, Senator Eduardo Bhatia said that the status referendum was "a trick" and assured that the results would not have any value in Washington because "it's an illegitimate and badly designed consult."

Other members of the minority parties agreed with the criticism. After a poll in a local newspaper presented contradicting results, Rogelio Figueroa, gubernatorial candidate and co-founder of the Puerto Ricans for Puerto Rico Party (PPR) argued that the poll was proof the status referendum would not solve the status issue. He also claimed that the project was just a way for the two main parties to "perpetuate themselves". Other leaders from the Movimiento Unión Soberanista (MUS), Worker's People Party (PPT), and the Movimiento Independentista Nacional Hostosiano (MINH) considered the process to be just an excuse of the government to "push supporters of statehood to vote" with some of them calling the referendum a "deceit to voters."

Ballot

The referendum posed two questions. Voters were asked first whether they agreed that Puerto Rico should continue to have its present form of territorial status. Regardless of how voters answered that question, they were then asked to express their preference among the three non-territorial alternatives to the current status: statehood, complete independence, or nationhood in free association with the United States.

The ballot descriptions for the second part of the question were:

• Statehood: "Puerto Rico should be admitted as a state of the United States of America so that all United States citizens residing in Puerto Rico may have rights, benefits, and responsibilities equal to those enjoyed by all other citizens of the states of the Union, and be entitled to full representation in Congress and to participate in the Presidential elections, and the United States Congress would be required to pass any necessary legislation to begin the transition into Statehood." This option was identified by a star with the number 51 inside.
• Independence: "Puerto Rico should become a sovereign nation, fully independent from the United States and the United States Congress would be required to pass any necessary legislation to begin the transition into independent nation of Puerto Rico." This option was identified by a map of Puerto Rico with the word "Free" written inside.
• Sovereign ELA: "Puerto Rico should adopt a status outside of the Territory Clause of the Constitution of the United States that recognizes the sovereignty of the People of Puerto Rico. The Sovereign Free Associated State would be based on a free and voluntary political association, the specific terms of which shall be agreed upon between the United States and Puerto Rico as sovereign nations. Such agreement would provide the scope of the jurisdictional powers that the People of Puerto Rico agree to confer to the United States and retain all other jurisdictional powers and authorities." This option was identified by the silhouette of a pitirre.

Criticism

Critics indicate that voters who favor a developed version of the current status of Puerto Rico (a commonwealth which is part of the United States with internal self-government) had no place to vote on the ballot. As a result, leaders of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) instructed such voters to leave the second portion of the ballot blank, or to invalidate the ballot.

History professor Luis Agrait said to CNN that "a large number of ballots -- one-third of all votes cast -- were left blank on the question of preferred alternative status. If you assume those blank votes are anti-statehood votes, the true result for the statehood option would be less than 50%"

Results

With 2,402,942 registered to vote and 1615 of 1643 polling stations reporting, 2,363,099 registered voters have been accounted for. Of those, 1,843,552 voted, giving 78.01% voter participation with 98.3% of polling stations reporting.

First part Continue with the present form of status? Choice Votes Percentage of valid Percentage of total No 943,094 54.00% 51.70% Yes 803,407 46.00% 44.04% Valid votes 1,746,501 100% 95.74% Blank votes 64,745   3.55% Invalid votes 12,883   0.71% Total votes 1,824,129   100.00% Source:

Second part Choose a non-territorial option Choice Votes Percentage of valid Percentage of total Statehood 809,652 61.13% 44.61% ELA Soberano 441,505 33.33% 24.33% Independence 73,362 5.54% 4.04% Valid votes 1,324,519 100% 72.98% Blank votes 472,674   26.04% Invalid votes 17,764   0.98% Total votes 1,814,957   100% Source:

Aftermath

Puerto Rico's Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi and outgoing Governor Luis Fortuño have stated that they will present the results to the Obama administration and leaders of the United States Congress. President Obama has said that he will support the will of Puerto Ricans if there is a clear majority.

Governor-elect Alejandro García Padilla, who had been critical of the process, said that the consult was "unfair" and that it didn't offer clear results. He also said that "none of the options received most of the 50% within the emitted ballots" which included those that didn't choose any of the presented non-territorial options. Other analysts agreed with this argument, stating that the votes received by all the "anti-statehood" alternatives amounted to 53.64% of the ballots.

On November 8, 2012, Washington, D.C. newspaper The Hill published an article saying that Congress will likely ignore the results of the referendum due to the circumstances behind the votes. U.S. Congressmen Luis Gutiérrez and Nydia Velázquez, both Puerto Rican, agreed with the statements.

See also

• Puerto Rico statehood movement
• 51st state