Puerto Rico status referendum - June 11

[Zioneer]

My view is that while I'd like Puerto Rico to choose statehood and I will advocate strongly for that, I am fine with whatever they choose in the end.

[Zioneer]

Ugh, the whole point of the referendum is that it would be a final, binding vote on statehood or independence. No more of the territorial limbo!

[Zioneer]

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

[Zioneer]

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.

[Zioneer]

Why is statehood even being considered given their financial situation?

Well, one of the conditions for the Republic of Texas being annexed and turned into a state was the US taking over their debts, so if Texas can be admitted to the states, the already American territory of Puerto Rico can be too.

[Zioneer]

Everyone is ignoring the obvious flaw in the referendum, it failed to offer a logical choice: give Puero Rico back to Spain, let them deal with the bankruptcy of their former colony. 
That way we won't have to be politically incorrect and require Puerto Rico to teach English.

I assume you're joking, but I don't think Puerto Rico, Spain, or even the American people as a whole want that.

[Zioneer]

The leap to accept this referendum is really odd. The timeline as I understand it was this:

The Governor of Puerto Rico scheduled the initial referendum and petitioned the DOJ to gain official recognition of it. The DOJ objected due to the phrasing and the lack of a status-quo option. Though the Governor corrected some of the issues, he declined to go back to the DOJ as he wanted to rush the referendum through before unpopular budget cuts would make him and (possibly) statehood look bad. Objecting to the Governor's political shenanigans, issues with the language in the referendum, and the lack of official legitimacy, the main opposition party decided to cripple the referendum's legitimacy by boycotting. In the vote, despite Puerto Rico regularly having 80% voter participation, only 23% of registered voters participated.

From that I'd say the argument that this referendum was not legitimate was pretty damn strong. Without official DOJ recognition, a large vote for statehood was the only kind of legitimacy this vote would have. The opposition made the perfectly logical decision to deny that legitimacy (as well as protest the dodgy circumstances around the election) by boycotting, a boycott which seems to have been very successful. You don't see many boycotted elections in the 1st world, but you don't really see many attempts to hold dodgy elections in the West either.

I don't think Puerto Rico should be denied statehood or any other option if they legitimately vote for it, but I DO think there's a firm argument to deny statehood based on THIS vote.

So does opposition just have to boycott a vote to ensure that it becomes invalid? That seems pretty dangerous.