How the Democrats Rigged the Vote in Puerto Rico

The island has long been divided between those citizens who want statehood and those who want the status quo. Yet in an upcoming referendum, the status quo option has mysteriously disappeared.

On Tuesday, November 5, Americans will go to the polls and choose their next president. We can only hope there will be no allegations of vote-rigging.

There is, however, one group of U.S. citizens who already knows their vote will be rigged. I’m referring to the 3.2 million residents of Puerto Rico. (My maternal grandparents migrated from Puerto Rico in the 1950s.) Because Puerto Rico is a “commonwealth” of the United States, rather than a state, Puerto Ricans cannot vote in federal elections. But they do get to vote in local elections, which this year includes a nonbinding referendum on the island’s political status—the seventh such referendum in its history. 

When they walk into the polling booth on Election Day, Puerto Ricans will be offered three possibilities: (1) statehood, (2) complete independence from the U.S., and (3) sovereignty that includes an ongoing association with the United States. What they will not see is the option of maintaining the status quo. 

In previous referendums, the status quo—remaining a commonwealth—has been among the most popular options. So why would the latest referendum suddenly exclude this option? Because the Democratic Party, in concert with Puerto Rico’s pro-statehood party, have designed it that way. There is no other way to describe it: They have rigged the vote to give the statehood option a decisive advantage—and they have done it in plain sight. 

The status of the island has long been the most important issue in Puerto Rican politics. It is the main divide between the two largest parties, the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), which advocates maintaining the status quo, and the New Progressive Party (PNP), which would like Puerto Rico to become the 51st state.

It’s no secret that the Democrats would love to see Puerto Rico achieve statehood. They believe it would add another blue state to the union, secure two more Democratic votes in the Senate, and tip the balance of power in their favor. Republicans see statehood as a threat for these same reasons. 

Realistically, Puerto Rican statehood could happen only if Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress and the White House, while also eliminating the filibuster—a situation that is unlikely but far from impossible. Should that circumstance ever arise, Democrats have been preparing the ground for Puerto Rican statehood by encouraging referendums on the island. In principle, there is nothing wrong with this. In fact, it’s a good thing to check in on the popular will of Puerto Ricans. To that end, in both 1997 and 2010, House Democrats passed bills calling for straightforward referendums that included the full suite of options. 

This time, however, Democrats are playing dirty. In 2022, House Democrats, in consultation with the PNP, passed the Puerto Rico Status Act, which called for another referendum—one that excluded the status quo option. The bill was reintroduced in 2023, this time with more co-sponsors, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the most famous American politician of Puerto Rican descent. The Democrats’ bill was then adopted by Pedro Pierluisi, Puerto Rico’s pro-statehood governor, as the basis for November’s referendum. 

Removing the status quo option effectively guarantees that statehood will win. This is because in previous referendums, the only options that have received more than 40 percent of the vote were statehood and commonwealth. The other options are essentially nonstarters. Independence, for instance, has never won more than 5.5 percent of the vote, because Puerto Ricans cherish their U.S. citizenship. 

And the so-called “sovereignty with free association” formula—whereby Puerto Rico would somehow be both an independent country and retain ironclad U.S. citizenship—has been declared unconstitutional by the Department of Justice multiple times. It is often characterized as a “fantasy.” 

A big victory for statehood would constitute an obvious sham to anyone in the know, including Puerto Ricans themselves. The pro–status quo PPD has called the referendum an “anti-democratic mockery,” while the leader of the smaller Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) has called it a “plebiscite of lies.” Both parties have instructed their members—collectively constituting some 40 percent of the population—to leave the ballot blank in protest. 

Given that most Americans know almost nothing about Puerto Rico, the Democrats are poised to get away with their vote-rigging scheme. The Dems will get what they want—an apparent mandate for eventual Puerto Rican statehood—and most Americans won’t know that this was achieved by cheating. 

Democrats have justified this farce by arguing that Puerto Ricans should be presented only with “non-colonial” options—never mind the fact that the commonwealth option has won several referendums in the past. Yet the irony is that the Democrats, while draping themselves in the rhetoric of decolonization, are behaving rather like colonizers. What else can you call an underhanded attempt to force a territory into the union against the will of its residents? 

And that’s not the only irony here. For four years, Democrats have rightly complained about Donald Trump’s shameful attempt to steal the 2020 election. In doing so, they have projected an image of themselves as a virtuous party that cares about democracy. Yet here we are, four years later, watching these very same Democrats brazenly rig a referendum in Puerto Rico for the most self-interested of reasons. 

The question of Puerto Rican statehood is a complex one with strong arguments on both sides. But we should all be able to agree on this: Whatever happens with Puerto Rico must happen with the consent of its people, as the result of a fair referendum with all options included. Anything less would be a grave disservice to the people of Puerto Rico and a stain on the American project.