Thinking about Elections

THEY HAVE NO VOTE. Residents of Puerto Rico are not alone in being US citizens who have no right to vote for president, senators, or a representative in the House who can vote on legislation. Residents of Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the US Virgin Islands, all territories like Puerto Rico, are also denied these voting rights. Washington DC has no senators or voting member of the House, but they got the right to vote for president in 1961 with the ratification of the 23rd amendment. When someone from these places moves to any state, they have the same voting rights as citizens in that state. So, when Puerto Ricans moved to New York after Hurricane Maria (2017), they could vote for all the offices any New Yorker could vote for.

However, American Samoa is different. American Samoans have restricted voting rights like the other territories, but unlike the other territories, American Samoans are not US citizens. Their status is “non-citizen nationals.” That means that if they move to a state, they do not have the voter rights that US citizens in that state have. They remain non-citizens with the limited voting rights of non-citizen nationals.

When a US citizen moves to a US territory and makes it their permanent residence, they are denied voting rights like other residents of that territory.

The US acquired American Samoa in a deal (1899) with Germany and the UK to divide up the islands. In 1898, the US acquired Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines in the Spanish-American war. The US bought the Virgin Islands from Denmark in 1917. The US acquired the Northern Mariana Islands after WWII. The Northern Mariana Islands had been under Japanese control since WWI.

https://www.rockthevote.org/explainers/washington-d-c-puerto-rico-and-the-u-s-territories/