Volumen 1, Edición
1
Octubre 2020
INFORMA
Statehood is on the ballot for Puerto Ricans this November Puerto Rico is poised to vote on statehood — and make political waves from NYC to Washington, D.C. this November. Puerto Rico’s governor says he would back a federally sponsored referendum that asks voters whether the U.S. territory should become a state.
Statehood means Puerto Rico would get two U.S. senators and an estimated five seats in the House of Representatives. It would get a crucial seven electoral votes in presidential elections. More importantly for statehood advocates, it would be much more difficult for President Trump or anyone else to treat Puerto Rico differently from the other 50 states. “The momentum of history is with statehood,” Torres added. Polls show more support for statehood than ever before, especially compared to past disputed referendums. Puerto Ricans favored the measure by an 18-point margin in a recent poll.
On Nov. 3, millions of the island’s residents will cast their ballots and answer an impor-tant question: Do they want to ask for state-hood? If so, it’s a decisi-on that would dramatically shake up the political status quo from the Bronx to Washington, D.C. For Ritchie Torres, the soon-to-be congress-man from the Bronx, statehood, or estadidad, is simply about Puerto
And Americans on the mainland are also surprisingly supportive of the idea of adding new stars to the flag. A recent poll said Americans support statehood for Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, if they ask for it, by a powerful 59%-26% margin, including a huge 70% backing from political independents. Puerto Rico has held five non-federal referendums, although none specifically asked people to simply vote yes or no on statehood. In the most recent referendum, held last year, nearly half a million votes were cast for statehood, about 7,600 for free association or in-dependence and nearly 6,700 for
Ricans getting the saas any otme right her American citizen. “If you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re going to be on the menu,” said Torres, who will succeed Jose Serrano (D-Bronx) as representative of the most heavily Puerto Rican congressional district in the nation. “The people on the island should not be at the mercy of presidents and Congress.”
the current territorial status. But just 23 percent of voters turned out. If Puerto Rico is given fullfledged status as the 51st state in the union?
Ritchie Torres
The Constitution provides that each state gets two seats in the US Senate regardless of population, which means Puerto Rico would take the 101st and 102nd seats in the chamber.