Why the fuck are US citizens not allowed to vote in a US election?
this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2024
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Because each state is given the power to elect a president, not the voters. Puerto Rico isn’t a state so their voters aren’t represented properly.
i mean the technicallity is that washington dc isnt a state either, so the better answer is that you need to live in a region where you have representatives.
Dc does not have voting representatives in congress. They only get electoral votes because of the 23rd ammendment
The better question is "why didn't the 23^rd^ grant voting rights to all US citizens in all territories?"
gonna be honest with you, its racism.
Because of slavery, basically. The US couldn't have a directly-elected president at founding because that would mean slaveholding states would get less power per person actually living there, unless they wanted to let slaves vote which of course they wouldn't. So 3/5ths compromise, electoral college, yadda yadda yadda, and 250 years later power still is filtered through the states. So now that that's the case, giving any new people voting rights would change the power balance between the ~~slaveholders~~ right and ~~abolitionists~~ left. So as a result, places like PR that have an abnormal amount of ~~minorities~~ Democratic voters tend to be unable to get Congress to grant them voting rights.
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the electoral college values different things than the will of the populace
Which was actually supposed to prevent Trump, but the founding fathers couldn't have predicted the modern world.
Well, they did. It was referred to by the Framers as a "Living Document" and they intended us to re-write it as we grew as a nation:
"The question Whether one generation of men has a right to bind another, seems never to have been started either on this or our side of the water… (But) between society and society, or generation and generation there is no municipal obligation, no umpire but the law of nature. We seem not to have perceived that, by the law of nature, one generation is to another as one independant nation to another…
On similar ground it may be proved that no society can make a perpetual constitution, or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs always to the living generation…
Every constitution, then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of 19. years. If it be enforced longer, it is an act of force and not of right."
-Tommy J.
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History tells me that if the US is disenfranchising a group of people, it's usually racism
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one more reason why the popular vote would be better than the shitshow this is
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Puerto Rico needs to be a state already. Washington DC too.
What happened "no taxation without representation" that the colonists fought for in the war of independence? Apparently it only applies to white people.
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Combine the Carolinas and Dakotas, add DC and Puerto Rico. No flag change.
Got it, so North Carokota, South Dakolina, and DC and Puerto Rico. I think it’s a great idea.
I was gonna say it's ridiculous to make DC a state, it's just a city!
Turns out more people live in DC than Wyoming or Vermont LOL. So I'm down!
Also I've heard that monkey's brains, although popular in Cantonese cuisine, are not often found there.
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Look man. I know NC is far from perfect, but don't lump me in with SC okay.
If we combined Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming, and both Dakotas into one mega state, they'd have about the population of South Carolina.
But somehow they get 17 electoral votes to SCs 9 and 10 senators to California's 2.
So I vote for Monomskakota!
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After Sunday’s rally, a senior adviser for the Trump campain, Danielle Alvarez, said in a statement that Hinchcliffe’s joke did “not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”
His "set" absolutely reflects the views of Trump and his campaign. That is why he felt comfortable saying those things.
It's not like the racism of Tony Hinchcliffe was a secret that he kept carefully hidden from public view which caught the organizers by surprise. It took me about a minute of searching who this guy was before landing on the Tony Hinchcliffe Wikipedia page which covers his racist performance in Austin just 3 years ago.
His whole set was also loaded into the teleprompter, so they knew what he was gonna say.
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I can just hear those MAGA morons smugly chuckling, "What can they do LOL they can't even vote, fuck 'em!"
No, fuck you.
I look forward to the inevitable exit polls showing just how much Nazi Fest 2024 sank the GröpenFührer/Cöuchfücker ticket.
Come on, sanity! You can do it!
I have no faith left in this country, he shouldn't even have gotten this far. I fully expect this to somehow raise his popularity, followed by a glowing endorsement from WaPp and Eric Adams
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I saw a video of the 'comedy' that was said about Puerto Rico and I am honestly just fucking baffled as to why they hate them that much? I guess all they need to be to be hated is just be browner than they are.
Also how come the issue of Trump's disgusting behavior during Hurricane Maria and his refusal to fully help them beyond a stupid stunt that had him throw a paper towel at someone's face.
A lot of them don't know that Puerto Ricans are Americans. So, add xenophobia to the racism.
Man when I went to pr for a quick vacation the amount of people asking about passports floored me. I was like it’s a us territory how have you not learnt that in school?
Also I got lots of local pr Spanish slang, they’re chill peeps and mofongo is the best. I think they should get statehood they’re bigger in population than the state I grew up in and it would be nice to shake up us politics with more senate seats.
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I’ve never understood the whole Puerto Rico situation. Your country was built on the rage of having taxation without representation. Why is it that Puerto Rico isn’t allowed to participate in your elections despite being US citizens?
Because racism.
Because our system is ~~broken af~~ designed and manipulated by powerful rich rascists who don't want to give up control.
They don't pay federal income tax (but they do pay other federal taxes, like payroll taxes including social security).
It's really racism. But if you want the legalistic explanation, here it is....
The United States started out with 13 states that were all ex-British territories on the Eastern seaboard of North America. There are now 50 states. Every state after the first 13 got its statehood by first being a territory, adopting a state Constitution at a constitutional convention, and then getting that Constitution approved by US Congress, and so being "admitted to the Union."
Under the Constitution, only states (and Washington DC) participate in the electoral college. The concept of non-state "territory" did not necessarily exist when that part was written, because there were only the original 13, and the Louisiana purchase wasn't done until later.
[Washington DC is a very special "district" that is not a state and not a territory.]
Puerto Rico has stayed at the territory stage since it was acquired in the Spanish-American war (started 1898). Why? Well, mostly racism. There have also been some popular votes in Puerto Rico, with very mixed results. In the currently evenly split political climate, getting any new state admitted is probably impossible (as it was before the civil war).
There's also some undercurrent that maybe the US is kinda uncomfortable holding on to these overseas islands (which are mostly connected to the same Spanish-American war). Philippines became an independent country. On the other hand, Hawaii got statehood in 1959 (but there was a whole racist history there of white colonization).
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After Sunday’s rally, a senior adviser for the Trump campain, Danielle Alvarez, said in a statement that Hinchcliffe’s joke did “not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”
"All the stuff about you people being vermin that poison the blood of America, though, we meant that."
What an incredibly stupid thing for them to say. This was an official election rally, and they 100% vetted every joke before he went out there. If they didn't, they're incompetent. So either way, their own weak ass defense is damning.
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-10-02-0065
There was one difficulty however of a serious nature attending an immediate choice by the people. The right of suffrage was much more diffusive in the Northern than the Southern States; and the latter could have no influence in the election on the score of the Negroes. The substitution of electors obviated this difficulty and seemed on the whole to be liable to fewest objections.
The electoral college was purely designed to let southerners use their slaves for votes. Letting Puerto Ricans vote doesn't help Southerners cheat.
Tell your hermanos, hermanas, amigos and amigas.
Reminder: The only reason Puerto Ricans cannot vote is because Republicans refuse to recognize it as a state, and they do that because they don't want brown people to vote, and they don't want brown people to vote because they don't want them to exist.
As much as I hate the GOP, Puerto Rico has never attempted to apply for statehood. Their referendums on the subject have never shown a large enough amount of support for them to try a real vote. They're typically around a 50-50 split.
State or not I think its pretty ridiculous that they are american citizens but can't vote for president of the united states... People living in DC get to vote and aren't living in a state.
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After Sunday’s rally, a senior adviser for the Trump campain, Danielle Alvarez, said in a statement that Hinchcliffe’s joke did “not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”
Your team knew exactly who he is and you specifically invited him to be part of your event.
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Why is it that an American citizen living in, for example, France or any foreign country can vote but Americans in Puerto Rico can not?
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