Puerto Rico Votes Sunday on Statehood Issue


A visitor writes a message on a makeshift memorial one year after a gunman killed 49 people and wounded 53 at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
One year after Orlando shooting, 'Angels' fight hatred

Puerto Rico residents head to the polls Sunday to vote on whether the island should become the 51st U.S. state, a prospect that the island's pro-statehood governor has been promoting as a way to help solve the island's crippling debt crisis.

Gov. Ricardo Rosselló from the New Progressive Party (PNP in Spanish) and his government have been pushing for a "yes" for statehood on the non-binding referendum and have been spending on GOTV efforts and television and radio ads.

But the endeavor faces an uphill battle. The U.S. territory has been shuttering schools and cutting pensions, while watching its residents flee to the U.S. mainland in search of work and its government forced to adhere to an oversight board's dictates.

The government is wrestling with a formidable $73 billion debt and is currently in the courts under a U.S. federal district judge trying to negotiate a form of bankruptcy process (Title III). As a U.S. territory and not a state, the island cannot file for bankruptcy like other states and municipalities.

Puerto Rico is wrestling with a formidable $73 billion debt and is currently in the courts under a U.S. District judge trying to negotiate a form of bankruptcy process (Title III). As a U.S. territory and not a state, the island cannot file for bankruptcy like other states and municipalities.

Historically, residents of the island have been pretty evenly divided between statehood and the current commonwealth status. In the last plebiscite, 62 voted for statehood, but there were issues with the way the options were laid and it led to questions about its accuracy.

interesting proposal

It will be interesting to see the results. My self, I think it's time
for PR to find it's way to independence.

I think it's time to put up or shut up. In or out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admission_to_the_Union

The Admission to the Union Clause of the United States Constitution, oftentimes called the New States Clause, and found at Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1, authorizes the Congress to admit new states into the United States beyond the thirteen already in existence at the time the Constitution went into effect.

The Constitution went into effect on June 21, 1788, after ratification by 9 of the 13 states, and the federal government began operations under it on March 4, 1789.[1] Since then, 37 additional states have been admitted into the Union. Each new state has been admitted on an equal footing with those already in existence.[2]

Of the 37 states admitted to the Union by Congress, all but six have been established from an existing U.S. organized incorporated territory. A state so created might encompass all or a portion of a territory. When the people of a territory or a region thereof would make their desire for statehood known to the federal government, in most cases Congress passed an enabling act authorizing the people of that territory or region to frame a proposed state constitution as a step towards admission to the Union. Although the use of an enabling act was a common historic practice, a number of territories drafted constitutions for submission to Congress without one, and were admitted to the Union.

An enabling act would detail the mechanism by which the territory would be admitted as a state following ratification of their constitution and election of state officers. Although the use of such an act is a traditional historic practice, a number of territories have drafted constitutions for submission to Congress absent an enabling act and were subsequently admitted. The broad outline for this process was established by the Land Ordinance of 1784 and the 1787 Northwest Ordinance, both of which predate the present U.S. Constitution.