Puerto Rico has just held its seventh status referendum. The Puerto Rico Status Act, a status bill for Puerto Rico currently pending in both the House and the Senate, calls for a final federally-sponsored vote on the Island’s political status. The incoming Resident Commissioner for Puerto Rico has insisted that “commonwealth” should be on future referendum ballots.
But he doesn’t mean the current territory status. He means “enhanced” or “improved commonwealth,” a mythical political status which has been rejected by all three branches of the federal government. Members of his party have been agitating to have this option on plebiscite ballots steadilyfor decades, but it has not been included during the 21st century.
None of the above
In 1988, the “commonwealth” party did not get its option for an “enhanced” or “developed” commonwealth on the ballot. Voters were offered the current status quo — a U.S. territory under the term “commonwealth” — but the commonwealth party rejected that definition. Instead, “none of the above” was added as an option. It won.
The Puerto Rico Herald explained:
“After the voting, the prominent public opinion polling firm of Zogby International contacted a statistically valid sample of Puerto Ricans who said that they had chosen ‘none of the above’ on the ballot. The results showed that 37% of respondents said their vote was for support of ‘another definition of Commonwealth.’ Some 40% said they chose the ‘none of the above’ column for such reasons as irritation that the vote was held during the Christmas holiday season, anger over the devastation of Hurricane George that had swept the island several months earlier, outrage over the Rosselló administration’s privatization of the public telephone company and antagonism towards Governor Pedro Rosselló generally. The remaining 23% said they were confused by the ballot language.”
Pollster John Zogby summed up his results, “When you consider the number of people who voted for the ‘none of the above’ ballot, and the number of people who voted in protest, then combine these with the number of people who were simply confused by the text, the results show the referendum shouldn’t count.”
The referendum essentially didn’t count. Congress used the results to claim once again that their hands were tied until Puerto Rico got its act together. The report on the results from Congress said, “Given the history of previous status votes, as well as the specula-tive nature of any interpretation of the ‘None of the Above’ vote in 1998, the Committee concludes that the true will of the voters in Puerto Rico regarding their ultimate political status can only be ascertained through further self-determination in the future.”
As Columbia professor Christina Ponsa Krauss has written, “For all their rhetoric about a visionary and forward-looking challenge to an outdated and unproductive debate, the actual consequences of ‘none of the above’ are impossible to distinguish from an emphatic reaffirmation of Puerto Rico’s colonial status quo.”
However, the referendum did make progress toward eventual resolution of Puerto Rico’s political status. The President of the United States publicly recognized that statehood got the most votes among the possible statuses. This led to a presidential summit on the issue, a 2000 law for a referendum in 2001 which the territorial government did not honor, and the establishment of the President’s Task Force on Puerto Rico’s Status.
Recent ballots
“Enhanced commonwealth” never got back on the ballot, and the current status quo, the status of an unincorporated territory, is generally not what “commonwealth” proponents want. Commonwealth leaders were left feeling that their preferences were unheard and often claimed that they were “disenfranchised” by this situation. The Resident Commissioner-elect has already tried to count blank ballots, claiming that fewer than 50% of voters in 2024 chose statehood, when the reality is that 57% voted for statehood.
Supporters of “enhanced commonwealth” now often argue for “sovereign free association,” which they define much as they previously defined “enhanced commonwealth.” Other commonwealth supporters continue to argue that the current territorial status can be improved and developed into a unique non-colonial relationship.
The Puerto Rico Status Act includes sovereign free association as an option, but does not include the current territorial status. Puerto Rico deserves a permanent political status, not a continuation of the current colonial relationship and not a fantasy status which the United States will not accept. “Commonwealth” has no place in future referenda.
One response
The truth is that according to the US Constitution the status of Puerto Rico is that of a US Territory! Commonwealth or ELA (Free Associated State-a term that fools or confuses people)– has NO legal definition; does not exist in our US Constitution that only allows a non-territorial Status to be STATEHOOD vs INDEPENDENCE with or without Free Association Pact. The US Congress is not above the US Constitution to create a new Status or to relinquish its constitutional Territorial powers.