- Joined
- Jul 8, 2013
- Messages
- 16,825
- Reaction score
- 7,184
- Location
- Out West
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Centrist
We've been having a spirited discussion on Americans living in the US territories barred from voting in presidential elections. As an FYI, they do vote in the primaries.
By way of background, the constitution gives the power to elect the potus via the electoral college to the states, very likely do to the thinking that average Americans were too ill-informed to cast an informed ballot for such an important position. With advances in mass news media, over time every state transitioned from having the state legislatures pick their electoral college delegates to holding general elections in each state. Since the constitution does not specify how each state should select their electoral college delegates, there was no need to amend the constitution.
Inadvertently left out of the process were residents of Washington, DC and the US territories since they do not live in a state. It wasn't until 1961 that Washingtonians finally got to vote for president. This anomaly does not apply to Americans born in the US territories, only Americans who live in the US territories. If a Puerto Rican moves to Orlando, he instantly becomes eligible to vote in Florida elections. However, if a Texan moves to Puerto Rico he instantly loses his right to vote in presidential elections but votes instead for the mayor of San Juan, governor of Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rico delegate to Congress in Washington and the Puerto Rico legislature. An even greater anomaly is if a New Yorker moves to Pakistan, he gets to vote for President of the United States by mail. Only Americans living in the US territories are banned from voting for president.
In your view, what is the best way to address this oddity?
If the people in the terrirtories want to become states, then they need to lobby to become states. However the amount of benefits they receive outweighs the costs, and therefore they aren't doing it. Puerto Rico has been wrestling with this situation for decades.