Another united state: Puerto Rico votes for statehood

While Puerto Ricans are unable to vote in the presidential election, 65 percent of the US island territory’s four million citizens on Tuesday voted in favor of becoming the 51st US state – an action that President Obama said he supports.
While Americans voted in the general election, Puerto Ricans went to the polls to choose statehood or the status quo before answering a follow-up question to specify their will. Nearly 54 percent sought to change the territory’s 114-year relationship with the US. Only four percent of the islanders voted for complete independence, while 31 percent hoped for sovereign free association and 65 percent favored joining the US.
This election marks the first time that a majority of Puerto Ricans voted in favor of statehood in a nonbinding referendum. Almost 80 percent of eligible Puerto Rican voters took part in the referendum, which was the fourth in 45 years. Both Obama and Mitt Romney said they supported such a referendum, with the president making a promise to respect the will of the people.
“I believe the country should become a 51ststate because the US has influenced our country completely and we are Americanized completely 100 percent, there’s no differentiation,” a young woman told the German news source, Deutsche Welle.
“Puerto Rico has to be a state. There is no other option,” 25-year-old Jerome Lefebre of San Juan told the Associated Press. “We’re doing ok, but we could do better. We would receive more benefits, a lot more financial help.”
If Puerto Rico were to become the 51stUS state, its residents would be subject to federal taxes, which they are currently exempt from.
But Puerto Ricans cannot vote themselves into statehood. The decision lies with the US Congress, and some predict that statehood still lies in the very distant future. Puerto Ricans on Tuesday also voted for their congressional representative in Washington. Partial election results show Alejandro Garcia Padillo in the lead, who supports the island’s status quo. Pro-statehood Gov. Luis Fortuno was lagging in the votes as of Wednesday morning.