Puerto Rico Vote to Record Preferences on Status

Gov. Pedro Rossello on Sunday authorized a popular vote that he hopes will result in statehood for Puerto Rico, which came under U.S. control nearly 100 years ago.

The Nov. 14 vote gives Puerto Ricans the chance to say whether they want to become the 51st state of the Union, remain a U.S. commonwealth or establish an independent country.

The vote is non-binding. But Rossello’s New Progressive Party, betting voters will favor statehood, plans to use the results to persuade Congress to admit Puerto Rico as a state.

“We, the people, added a new page to our 500-year-old history. We have signed a law authorizing the status plebiscite,” Rossello said at a Fourth of July ceremony attended by a few hundred people.

Those favoring independence also hailed the measure.

Sen. Ruben Berrios, president of the Puerto Rican Independence Party, called the plebiscite a “historic process that will promote the decolonization of Puerto Rico.”

“We will try our best so that neither statehood nor commonwealth get a majority of the vote. Our vote is the one that really counts,” Berrios said.

It will be the first such vote in 26 years. In the last one, in 1967, commonwealth status won over statehood. Independence was not offered as an option.

Puerto Rico came under U.S. control in 1898 after the Spanish-American War. In 1952, the island became a U.S. commonwealth.