By DÁNICA COTO, Associated Press
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – Puerto Rico is holding an election that will be historic regardless of which of the two main candidates for governor wins.
If Jenniffer Gonzalez If the pro-statehood New Progressive Party wins Tuesday’s elections, it will be the first time in the island’s history that the party has won three consecutive terms.
If Juan Dalmau, who is running for the Puerto Rico Independence Party and the Citizens Victory Movement, wins, will be the first victory by a candidate who does not represent either of the two major parties that have dominated island politics for decades.
Trailing Gonzalez and Dalmau in the polls is Jesus Manuel Ortiz of the Popular Democratic Party, who supports territorial status for the island. Also running is Javier Jiménez of Proyecto Dignidad, a conservative party created in 2019.
For decades, the New Progressive Party and the Popular Democratic Party received at least 90% of all votes, but that began to change in 2016, with newer parties attracting more voters amid economic and political turmoil.
“It’s been a very big change,” said Jorge Schmidt Nieto, a political analyst and university professor.
Delayed results
Results are not expected late Tuesday, and analysts warn that it could be a couple of days before that happens. In the 2020 election, it took authorities four days to release preliminary results.
The Puerto Rico State Elections Commission is still counting more than 220,000 early and absentee ballots it received, and officials from several political parties say the process is slow. The counting of those votes began more than two weeks later than usual.
Jessika Padilla, alternate president of the commission, told a press conference that as of Monday, 40% of the votes had been counted.
“We are not going to take this validation process lightly”, she declared.
More than 5,000 inmates out of a total of 7,400 in Puerto Rico have also voted, although it is unclear how many of those votes have been counted.
The commission and other officials also continue to receive complaints about election crimes, including from people who say they received confirmations to vote early when they did not make such a request.
Meanwhile, power generators have been dispatched to more than two dozen polling stations to ensure electricity, given the chronic power outages that have plagued Puerto Rico in recent years.
A question of status and a symbolic vote.
On Tuesday, voters will also be asked for the seventh time about Puerto Rico’s political status. At non-binding referendum offers three options: statehood, independence, and independence with free association, under which issues such as foreign affairs, U.S. citizenship, and use of the U.S. dollar would be negotiated.
Regardless of the outcome, a change in status requires the approval of the U.S. Congress.
In addition, Puerto Ricans can support either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump in a symbolic vote on Tuesday if they so choose. Although Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, the island’s cannot vote in the U.S. presidential election..
Nearly 2 million voters are eligible to participate in Tuesday’s election, though it remains to be seen how many will. Voter apathy has dominated recent elections.