Puerto Rico status referendum - June 11

[Gass3268]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rican_status_referendum,_2017

I didn't see a thread on this. Puerto Ricans are voting again for their status. Unlike previous votes, there will be no option maintaining the commonwealth status the island has had for decades. In the 2012 referendum (concurrent with the US presidential election and the PR Governor election), 54% of voters chose to change their status; 61.6% of these voters chose statehood. But 27% of ballots in that referendum were blank.

If the referendum goes with statehood, the Puerto Rico government is also set to pass a bill to select the date for elections that will choose the new senators and congressmen. I'm not sure how much can happen with a GOP congress and president, but it would be hard to argue against the will of a United States territory (assuming statehood passes).

I do believe the Republican platform supports statehood.

[Gass3268]

There is no logical reason for DC NOT to be a state, unless you think land is more important that actual people.

[Gass3268]

Just make Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia states already. They're pretty much states by now except not-in-name. I don't care about the politics behind it and whether that means gains for Democrats, I just think they both deserve representation by this point in the House and Senate.

What they should do is have DC become a state, PR with the Virgin Islands become a state, and the Northern Marianas, Guam and American Samoa combine to form one state.

I agree 100% with this, the only issue is that population of Pacifica (my persona preference for a name) would probably be too small for a state with just American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Now you would probably get a big enough population if you included Associated states, the countries that are technically independent but relay in the United States for a log (defense, funding, currency, government services, etc). If you add these locations (Federated States of Micronesia, Marshal Islands, and Palau) you get a population of 469,305.

[Gass3268]

I mean, I guess statehood will get the majority. Republicans will not allow it to happen  because they don't want 2 dem senate seats. And when the democratic party controls the trifecta again, both DC and Puerto Rico become respectively 51th and 52th states.

Yup, I would hope that the Democrats pass a rule that filibustering doesn't apply to the admission of new states.

[Gass3268]

As far as DC statehood goes, it is constitutionally mandated that there must be a federal district for the federal government, which of course could be reduced in size as proposed here.

However, this rump district of a few buildings would still be entitled to three electoral votes per the 23rd Amendment which would be a rather ludicrous situation.

It would be easier to repeal that Amendment after the fact.