Puerto Rico status referendum - June 11

[Heisenberg]

I support independence, but I don't think it's too popular over there.

[Heisenberg]

I think that Puerto Ricans are going to vote in favor of statehood, especially with Rosselló in power.

Isn't CW that the status quo option will take more votes away from the statehood option than the other option?

[Heisenberg]

If statehood wins, would Congress accept them if they agreed to send 1 Republican and 1 Democrat to the Senate? Obviously the agreement couldn't last forever, but Democrats could agree not to run a candidate for one of the seats the first time.

The debate is about way more than just he Senate seats.

[Heisenberg]

So this is on Sunday, yeah? What are the current predictions on the results?

Should be a statehood landslide, but don't read too much into the results, the anti-statehood people are expected to largely boycott the referendum.

[Heisenberg]

So this is on Sunday, yeah? What are the current predictions on the results?

Should be a statehood landslide, but don't read too much into the results, the anti-statehood people are expected to largely boycott the referendum.

Ah, I see. I still think it's valid if a majority of voters vote for statehood. And I think that if statehood wins, Puerto Rico should start elections for Congress and Senate immediately. Send elected representatives to DC and dare them to block said elected officials from being seated. I think at least one other state in US history has done that, but I can't remember which one.

That state is Tennessee.
Anyway, opponents argue that the referendum loses legitimacy of turnout is too low.

[Heisenberg]

Apparently the plan is to elect senators and congressmen anyway to send to DC and force a vote. I can see the current crop of reps actually arresting them if they try to do a protest, vote in, etc.

But to even debate statehood, if I understand correctly, they also need to draft a State Constitution - something they haven't done (to my knowledge).

[Heisenberg]

You really think an issue this massive should be decided based off a non-binding referendum that 22% of the voters participated in and even less voted yes for?

I know Democrats are desperate for ways to make poor whites irrelevant, but this is just sad.

Why is turnout an issue for this, but never anything else in this country?

Anti-statehooders claim that the referendum was meant to be non-binding, and argue that for a referendum (as opposed to an election for an office) should have high turnout due to the fact that it is not something that can be "undone" in a future election.