Court denies Puerto Rico US vote

Puerto Rico remains US colony, it should be independent and not be part of the evil empire.

Last Updated: Tuesday, 21 March 2006, 10:15 GMT

Court denies Puerto Rico US vote

The US Supreme Court has rejected an attempt to give residents of the territory of Puerto Rico the right to vote in US presidential elections.

Judges threw out the appeal by a group of Puerto Ricans - the latest development in a long-running debate on the islanders' constitutional rights.

Puerto Rico, which is not a state, has been administered by the US since 1898.

Although residents cannot vote in presidential elections, they do elect a delegate to the US Congress.

However their representative does not vote, except in committees.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4828116.stm

Puerto Rico would get things completely out of control.

They have it better than a lot of other Caribbean countries. I lived in PR as a teenager. Unless things have changed greatly since then (and they may have), I doubt most Puerto Ricans will vote for independence, should the chance come up again. They may have only non-voting representation in Congress but they also do not pay federal income tax. Becoming independent would automatically make it a very poor country, although by Caribbean standards fairly well-off compared to, say, Haiti.

Opinions may very well have changed since I was there, however. There was always a pretty even split between maintaining the status quo, becoming a state or becoming independent.

although talking to people there you would get the impression that there are alot more independentistas. this is due to the fact that they belong to the status quo party which tells people that the Commonwealth is independent of US law and NOT a US territory but US citizenship is guaranteed as are the billions of dollars of benefits the island receives from the US government.

The reality is that PR is subject to US law because it IS in fact a US territory. their portrayal of the US-PR relationship is inaccurate to say the least but this is what they keep telling people the "Commonwealth" is.

that being said I agree PR should be independent. Although if there were a vote between statehood and independence and nothing else, statehood would win overwhelmingly because of the tremendous uncertainty involved with independence.

Even though their local tax is high, my understanding is that's the trade-off.
:shrug:

for illegal wars.

they pay social security and medicare taxes but not federal income taxes. the island also receives aid through all the variety of fed programs and all normal fed services.