Can Puerto Rico vote? Partly. The roughly 3.2 million U.S. citizens living in Puerto Rico can vote in presidential primaries and in their own robust local elections, but they cannot vote in the November general election for president, and they have no voting senators or representatives in Congress. The gap between citizenship and full federal representation is one of the widest in American democracy.
What Puerto Rico Residents Can Vote For
Puerto Rico runs a full local electoral system. Voters elect a governor every four years by popular vote.1Ballotpedia. Governor of Puerto Rico They also choose members of the Puerto Rico Legislative Assembly, a two-chamber body with a Senate and a House of Representatives, along with mayors and municipal officials across the island’s 78 municipalities.2Library of Congress Blogs. The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and Its Government Structure These elections take place every four years, on the same November day as the U.S. presidential election.
Residents also vote in the Democratic and Republican presidential primaries. Because the national parties run primaries themselves rather than under a constitutional mandate, they can include territories, and they do. Both primaries on the island are open, so voters do not have to be registered members of a party to participate. The catch is that primaries only help pick nominees. When the general election arrives, Puerto Rico has no presidential ballot at all.
Puerto Rico also elects a Resident Commissioner, who serves a four-year term in the U.S. House of Representatives.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 48 USC Chapter 4 Subchapter V – Resident Commissioner The Resident Commissioner can introduce legislation, sit on committees, and vote in those committees. What the Resident Commissioner cannot do is vote on the final passage of bills on the House floor. Puerto Rico has no representation in the U.S. Senate.
Why Puerto Rico Cannot Vote in Federal General Elections
The restriction is not a policy Congress could reverse with a simple bill. It is built into the structure of the Constitution, which ties federal voting to statehood in three separate places.
- Article I, Section 2 provides that the House “shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States.” Puerto Rico is not a state, so it gets no voting House members.4Congress.gov. Article I Section 2 – Constitution Annotated
- The 17th Amendment provides that senators are “elected by the people thereof,” referring to each state. No state status means no senators.
- Article II, Section 1 provides for electors who “meet in their respective States” to choose the president. Only states appoint electors, so Puerto Rico has zero Electoral College votes.5Congress.gov. Article II Section 1 Clause 3 – Constitution Annotated
The 23rd Amendment, ratified in 1961, carved out an exception for the District of Columbia by giving it electoral votes as if it were a state. No equivalent amendment has been enacted for Puerto Rico or any other territory. Without statehood or a constitutional amendment, the island’s residents are locked out of every general federal election.
Moving Changes Your Vote
Everyone born in Puerto Rico is a U.S. citizen at birth, a status that dates back to the Jones-Shafroth Act of 1917.6Department of State. 8 FAM 302.6 Acquisition by Birth in Puerto Rico A Puerto Rico resident who moves to any of the 50 states or the District of Columbia and establishes residency gains the full right to vote in federal, state, and local elections there. No naturalization, no extra waiting period beyond ordinary voter registration.
The reverse catches people off guard. A U.S. citizen who moves from a state to Puerto Rico loses the ability to vote in federal elections. The federal law that protects voting rights for Americans living abroad, known as UOCAVA, does not help. UOCAVA defines the “United States” to include Puerto Rico, so moving to the island is not treated as moving overseas. You are still technically in the United States, just in a part of it where federal voting rights do not apply. Your former state will not mail you a presidential absentee ballot.
Federal Taxes Puerto Rico Residents Still Pay
Not voting in federal elections does not mean not paying federal taxes. Employers and workers on the island pay Social Security tax at 6.2% each and Medicare tax at 1.45% each, identical to the rates in every state.7Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 903, U.S. Employment Tax in Puerto Rico The 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax on wages above $200,000 also applies. Employers pay federal unemployment tax too.
Federal income tax is where Puerto Rico diverges. Residents who earn all their income from sources within Puerto Rico generally do not file or pay federal income tax on that income, though they do pay Puerto Rico’s own income tax, which can be substantial.8Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 901, Is a Person With Income From Sources Within Puerto Rico Required to File a U.S. Federal Income Tax Return Residents with income from outside Puerto Rico, including U.S.-source income, still have to file a federal return once they exceed normal filing thresholds.
Could This Change?
Puerto Rico has voted on its political status multiple times. In a 2020 referendum, 52.52% of voters chose statehood.9Ballotpedia. Puerto Rico Statehood Referendum 2020 A nonbinding vote during the 2024 general election again showed majority support for becoming a state. None of these results are self-executing. Only Congress has the power to admit new states under Article IV of the Constitution, and Congress has not acted on any of Puerto Rico’s referendum outcomes.
Legislative efforts have stalled. The Puerto Rico Status Act, introduced in the 118th Congress, would have let Puerto Ricans choose among statehood, independence, or a free association arrangement in a binding, congressionally sanctioned vote.10Congress.gov. S.3231 – 118th Congress – Puerto Rico Status Act The bill did not pass. A separate House resolution said that the Insular Cases, a series of early 1900s Supreme Court decisions that established the doctrine of “unincorporated territories,” rest on racial views from the era of Plessy v. Ferguson and should be rejected as having no place in constitutional law.11Congress.gov. H.Res.314 – 118th Congress Those century-old decisions remain the legal foundation for treating territorial residents differently from state residents, and the Supreme Court has not overruled them.
Until Congress admits Puerto Rico as a state or the Constitution is amended, the island’s residents will continue to pay into federal programs, serve in the U.S. military, and carry American passports without the ability to vote for the president or a single voting member of Congress.