The United States is getting ready for a presidential election. The Democratic and Republican parties are holding their conventions, choosing their candidates, and wooing voters across the country. But individual voters don’t actually vote for the President of the United States. U.S. citizens living in states vote for the Electors for their state. These representatives gather and place their votes on behalf of their states. So Puerto Rico’s electoral votes…won’t exist until Puerto Rico is a state.
The Electoral College
Each state has a certain number of electoral voters, based on the population of the state. Alabama has 9 electoral votes. Iowa has 6. How many does Puerto Rico have? None. This is simply because Puerto Rico is not a state. Only states have electoral votes.
A presidential candidate needs 270 votes to win the presidency. That’s more than half the votes.
Maine and Nebraska assign votes proportionally, reflecting the percentage of votes for each candidate in their states. All the other states, and Washington, D.C., use a winner-takes-all system. Whichever candidate gets the majority of the people’s votes in the state gets all the electoral votes. This is why we can talk about red and blue states. Depending on the population vote in the state, the state will be either red (Republican) or blue (Democratic).
A state could also get a popular vote in favor of an independent candidate or a candidate from a smaller party, such as the Green Party or the Libertarians. George Wallace, an independent candidate, won 5 states in 1968 and garnered 46 votes.
Sometimes the popular vote — the votes of all the people in the nation — turns out to be different from the electoral votes. This was the case in 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016. Voters may have feelings about this, but it doesn’t change the outcome of the election. The Electoral College system is intended to keep large states from becoming more powerful than small states. All the voters in a state get the outcome chosen by the majority of voters in their state.
Puerto Rico’s electoral votes
When Puerto Rico is a state, it will have Electors and votes in the Electoral College. As a territory, Puerto Rico just doesn’t get to participate in the presidential election at all. At the current population size, Puerto Rico would have 6 electoral votes, just like Iowa.
Whichever candidate the majority of Puerto Rico voters chose to vote for, that candidate would get Puerto Rico’s six electoral votes.
Puerto Rico has been losing population. If the number of voters continues to shrink, then the state of Puerto Rico could have fewer electoral votes. Regardless of the number, Puerto Rico would be an essential part of the presidential elections after statehood.
Right now, the majority of Puerto Ricans live in states. There are about 3.2 million on the Island, and 5.9 million in states. U.S citizens from Puerto Rico can vote in presidential elections in their own states. They are essential for choosing the Electors their states send to the Electoral College. If you live in a state, be sure to register to vote. Be sure to ask the candidates their positions of statehood for Puerto Rico. Be sure to vote. Your vote matters.
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