Why is hawaii a state but not puerto rico?
Answers
Answered by
0
it requires an act of Congress to admit a new state to the Union. Congress has chosen not to do this. Why?
The biggest stumbling block is a lack of clear support on the part of the Puerto Rican people to become a US state. This may sound odd, especially if you already know about the 2012 vote. But the devil is in the details.
Commonly cited is that 61.15% of Puerto Ricans voted for statehood. But that’s not quite accurate.
The 61.15% of people is actually the percent of people who marked a vote when given a number of options. That means of the people who marked a vote, 39% did not choose state-hood. But more importantly, 24% of ballots were submitted blank. This means roughly 53% of all people who voted at all (turned in a ballot marked or not) did not *choose* statehood.
This is further compounded by the problem that while voter turn out was 80%, that still leaves 20% of the Puerto Rican population that chose to abstain from voting for or against statehood.
From Congress’s point of view, the people of Puerto Rico have failed to demonstrate unequivocally their support for statehood. When you couple this with the fact that Puerto Rico is in debt to the tune of $72 Billion which it cannot pay, there isn’t an overriding argument for forcing a vote by the Puerto Rican people to ask for statehood which in turn means there is no driver in Congress to vote them in as a state.
However, trending does suggest that Puerto Ricans are more in favor of statehood. And statehood has been supported by several US Presidents (Ford, Reagan, Bush 42, and Obama). And it appears to be supported to some extent by the President-elect. So if the people of Puerto Rico were to demonstrate their desire to be state with sufficient enthusiasm, it would likely be possible to pressure a vote in Congress.
Whether Congress would accept them is still questionable and again is the crux of the matter as to why Puerto Rico is not a state.
The biggest stumbling block is a lack of clear support on the part of the Puerto Rican people to become a US state. This may sound odd, especially if you already know about the 2012 vote. But the devil is in the details.
Commonly cited is that 61.15% of Puerto Ricans voted for statehood. But that’s not quite accurate.
The 61.15% of people is actually the percent of people who marked a vote when given a number of options. That means of the people who marked a vote, 39% did not choose state-hood. But more importantly, 24% of ballots were submitted blank. This means roughly 53% of all people who voted at all (turned in a ballot marked or not) did not *choose* statehood.
This is further compounded by the problem that while voter turn out was 80%, that still leaves 20% of the Puerto Rican population that chose to abstain from voting for or against statehood.
From Congress’s point of view, the people of Puerto Rico have failed to demonstrate unequivocally their support for statehood. When you couple this with the fact that Puerto Rico is in debt to the tune of $72 Billion which it cannot pay, there isn’t an overriding argument for forcing a vote by the Puerto Rican people to ask for statehood which in turn means there is no driver in Congress to vote them in as a state.
However, trending does suggest that Puerto Ricans are more in favor of statehood. And statehood has been supported by several US Presidents (Ford, Reagan, Bush 42, and Obama). And it appears to be supported to some extent by the President-elect. So if the people of Puerto Rico were to demonstrate their desire to be state with sufficient enthusiasm, it would likely be possible to pressure a vote in Congress.
Whether Congress would accept them is still questionable and again is the crux of the matter as to why Puerto Rico is not a state.
Similar questions