Puerto Rico statehood movement
Movement to grant Puerto Rico U.S. statehood / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Puerto Rico statehood movement (Spanish: movimiento estadista de Puerto Rico) aims to make Puerto Rico a state of the United States. Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territorial possession of the United States acquired in 1898 following the Spanish–American War, making it "the oldest colony in the modern world".[1][lower-alpha 1] As of 2023, the population of Puerto Rico is 3.2 million, around half the average state population and higher than that of 19 U.S. states. Statehood is one of several competing options for the future political status of Puerto Rico, including: maintaining its current status, becoming fully independent, or becoming a freely associated state. Puerto Rico has held six referendums on the topic. These are non-binding, as the power to grant statehood lies with the US Congress. The most recent referendum was in November 2020, with a majority (52.52%) of those who voted opting for statehood.[23]
Although the previous two referendums (November 2012 and June 2017) also had ostensibly pro-statehood outcomes, The New York Times described them as "marred, with ballot language phrased to favor the party in office".[24] For example, the fourth referendum, held in November 2012, asked voters (1) whether they wanted to maintain the current political status of Puerto Rico and, if not, (2) which alternative status they prefer. Of the fifty-four percent (54.0%) who voted "No" on maintaining the status quo, 61.11% chose statehood, 33.34% chose free association, and 5.55% chose independence.[25][26][27][28] Opponents of statehood argued that these results did not show that a majority of Puerto Rican voters support statehood. The June 2017 referendum was, according to The New York Times, a "flawed election" where the turnout was only 23%, in part because most statehood opponents sat out. 97% of votes cast favored statehood.[24] The November 2020 referendum was the first to ask voters a simple yes-or-no question: "Should Puerto Rico be admitted immediately into the Union as a State?". There were 655,505 votes in favor of statehood (52.52%) and 592,671 votes opposed (47.48%), with a turnout of 1,248,476 voters out of the total population stated by census Population Estimates of 3,221,789 as of July 1, 2022.[29] The 55% turnout rate equaled that for the simultaneous 2020 gubernatorial race and the 2016 gubernatorial race.