7/25/00 10:30 a.m.
Puerto Rico and U.S. Elections
Dastardly doings could tilt presidency to Gore.

By Jim Boulet, Jr., Executive Director of English First

l Gore's presidential campaign and even Hillary Clinton's New York Senate race may get a big boost from an unexpected source: Puerto Rico.

On July 19th, U.S. District Court Judge Jaime Pieras ruled that residents of Puerto Rico have the right to vote in presidential elections, beginning this November. The U.S. Department of Justice has not yet decided if it will appeal this rather far-fetched ruling.

Based on its large population, Puerto Rico would be entitled to eight votes in the Electoral College. However, since Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory, not a state, the mechanics of enabling Puerto Rico to participate in the Presidential election invite more Clinton- administration election mischief.

Under the Constitution, states, not individual citizens, vote for president. Each state has a certain number of electoral votes based on its population. Those electoral votes are usually (but not always) cast for the presidential candidate who won that state's popular vote.

Currently, non-states participate in the presidential election in different ways. Guam, an unincorporated U.S. territory like Puerto Rico, votes in U.S. presidential elections, but has no electoral votes. Meanwhile, Washington, D.C. has three electoral votes, thanks to the Twenty-third Amendment.

Most folks might think there are just two ways for Puerto Rico to cast votes that count in a presidential election: make Puerto Rico a state or pass a Constitutional amendment to give Puerto Rico electoral votes just like Washington, D.C. The chances of either of these events happening prior to November 7th are not good.

Unfortunately for the Republican presidential candidate, Gov. George W. Bush, and possibly for New York's Republican Senate candidate, Rick Lazio, there turns out to be a third option. An unnamed federal source suggested to Puerto Rico's largest newspaper, El Nuevo Dia, that the 50 states should allow any of their ex-residents who now reside in Puerto Rico to cast absentee ballots. Thus a resident of Puerto Rico who once lived (or claimed to have lived) in New York would be entitled to vote for president in New York.

States with large and migratory Puerto Rican populations, like New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Illinois, could be ordered to allow Puerto Ricans on the island to cast valid ballots in those states. Instead of Puerto Rico casting a mere eight electoral votes as a state in its own right, Puerto Rico voters could decide New York's 33 electoral votes, Pennsylvania's 23 electoral votes, Illinois's 22 electoral votes, and New Jersey's 15 electoral votes — a total of 93 electoral votes or over one third of the 270 electoral votes required to win the U.S. presidency.

Exactly how much proof of former residency a state could require in order to issue such an absentee ballot would be an open question. If the rules are set by the same Clinton-Gore administration that gave us Citizenship USA, a program which granted citizenship to non-English-speakers and even criminal aliens in order to make them eligible voters in 1996, the necessary documentary proof will be negligible at best.

Should a state choose to insist on a higher standard of proof of former U.S. residency for prospective Puerto Rico voters, a lawsuit claiming a violation of the federal Voting Rights Act can be expected, especially in New York. A separate state ballot for nonresident Puerto Ricans, which allows a vote only for the presidential race, but not Senate and House races, could also invite challenge on similar grounds.

The potential impact of millions of Puerto Ricans being allowed to declare themselves former New York residents under what would effectively be an honor system could be of great and direct benefit not only to Al Gore's presidential hopes but even to Hillary Clinton's Senate race. (Her husband's motives for the pardon of the Puerto Rico terrorists last year and his efforts to win another statehood vote for the island this year were already questioned for these same reasons.)

Now Hillary need only tell Bill to tell Attorney General Janet Reno not to appeal Judge Pieras's ruling in order to add millions of pro-Hillary votes to New York's rolls. Al Gore could carry what are expected to be close races in Pennsylvania and Illinois, if Janet Reno chooses to do nothing. (Janet Reno has had considerable practice in doing nothing when it comes to violations of federal election laws.)

Republicans in the House and Senate take note: Puerto Rico could have as much influence on the 2000 presidential race as the Communist Chinese did on the 1996 race. And this time, you can't say you weren't warned.