If the people of Puerto Rico are American citizens, why aren't they allowed to vote in presidential elections?

Question

They pay US taxes and serve in the US military, but if you are a Puerto Rican and live in Puerto Rico, you are NOT allowed to vote in presidential elections....Soldiers Can Die But Can't Vote? Puerto Ricans Serve Without Representation!

WTF?

Soooooo...what your saying is they don't have the right to vote??????

why?

Answer 1

Actually Puerto Ricans Do Not pay US taxes. They pay Puerto Rican Taxes which are a direct copy of the US tax code. Most if not all Puerto Rican tax forms still come from the Internal Revenue Service and are US Income Tax forms followed by the designation PR. So form 1040 for Puerto Rico is 1040-PR and is a spainish language form. All PR designate forms are mailed into Atlanta Georgia if they include a payment and Ogden Utah if there is no payment due. Seems stupid but that is what is going on.

As far as voting rights, Even tho we live in the continental United States we don't vote for president either. We vote for our electoral college representatives who in turn vote for the president. So In a way we don't vote for president either.

As of right now full citizenship, including voting rights, for Puerto Rico is gaining ground. There is a strong movement that might make Puerto Rico our 51st state. The same applies to the US Virgin Islands.

Answer 2

Puerto Ricans pay US income tax? REALLY?

Here's the map from the IRS web site that gives the addresses to file tax returns. Funny, I don't see Puerto Rico on here.

http://www.irs.gov/file/content/0,,id=105693,00.html


If they had the right to vote, that would be representation without taxation.

I used to sit by the Post Office in Isabel Segunda waiting for the bus to take me to base, watching all these people with brown envelopes coming out of the post office. (This was before direct deposit was widely used.) Puerto Ricans get all the benefits without paying a dime of income taxes. Military service is the only responsibility individual citizens have to this country. And they aren't drafted - they CHOOSE to do that.


***EDIT: To answer your second question - this is all in the Constitution:

The Electoral College elects the President and Vice-President. The popular vote is used to determine who gets each state's electoral votes. (It's not required that the state's Electoral College representative give their votes to whoever wins that state's popular vote. But that is what they do.) To have votes in the Electoral College, you have to be a state.

They have to be a state to have Senators and Representatives. Nothing to vote for there either. (They have a Commissioner with no voting rights; I'm sure they vote for that.)

They do vote for their own local races.

If they wanted to vote in Federal races badly enough, they'd request statehood. But they keep voting that down.

***EDIT 2: JL, my first link was not misleading. If they don't have to file, there would be no address. But I do agree that the link could be better. Here's a better link that gives it in black and white. I agree with your last sentence too.

http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc901.html

Mikeae, I hope you are right that the statehood movement is gaining ground. But I won't hold my breath. The PNP has been saying that for years. Do they still use the Puerto Rican flag with a red 51 in the star as one of their symbols?


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Answer 3

No. In Puerto Rico, they could no longer vote for any national election. however the boys nevertheless living in Puerto Rico, or who're right here (US), on the age of 18, would desire to sign up for the national draft.

Answer 4

I would add that the link given in the first response is misleading. It shows where to file. It is not saying who is 'required' to file.
As far as Puerto Rico being a territory of the US....Become a state or secede.