Why Puerto Rico could swing the Florida vote to Hillary Clinton
Yahoo! - 09/15/2016
“There’s no question that in a swing state like Florida, the mass influx of the past decade is going to play a major role,” says Amílcar Antonio Barreto, an associate professor of political science at Northeastern University and author of several books on Puerto Rican politics.
Since 1920, when the US Supreme Court ruled on the last of what became known as the Insular Cases – a series of decisions dealing with the rights granted to residents of the island, considered an unincorporated territory – Puerto Ricans have had the right to vote in US elections if they establish residence on the mainland, but not if they live on the island itself.
That means that, unlike immigrants, notes Dr. Barreto in an interview with The Christian Science Monitor, new arrivals from Puerto Rico can vote soon after they get situated. And unlike Cubans, they tend to favor the Democratic Party, suggesting that voting patterns in the state might break down more along the same demographic lines as in other parts of the country.
“Puerto Ricans may put Florida back into the norm with the other states in terms of politics,” he says.
“There’s no question that in a swing state like Florida, the mass influx of the past decade is going to play a major role,” says Amílcar Antonio Barreto, an associate professor of political science at Northeastern University and author of several books on Puerto Rican politics.
Since 1920, when the US Supreme Court ruled on the last of what became known as the Insular Cases – a series of decisions dealing with the rights granted to residents of the island, considered an unincorporated territory – Puerto Ricans have had the right to vote in US elections if they establish residence on the mainland, but not if they live on the island itself.
That means that, unlike immigrants, notes Dr. Barreto in an interview with The Christian Science Monitor, new arrivals from Puerto Rico can vote soon after they get situated. And unlike Cubans, they tend to favor the Democratic Party, suggesting that voting patterns in the state might break down more along the same demographic lines as in other parts of the country.
“Puerto Ricans may put Florida back into the norm with the other states in terms of politics,” he says.
