When can Puerto Rico become the 51st state?

Answer 1

Puerto Rico could become a state tomorrow! However it wont because five things have to happen in order for any U.S. territory can become a state:

1) The territory has to adopt a constitution.

DONE! -

Puerto Rico's constitution went into effect July 25, 1952. July 25th is a big holiday in Puerto Rico every year.

2) The majority of the people in the territory must vote to become a state.

DONE? - Well, SORT OF....

Puerto Rico had had 4 plebiscites on the question of statehood. A plebiscite is a non-binding vote by the people to express their wishes to the government. In the first plebiscite (1967), statehood lost soundly beaten by "status quo", or keeping the current territorial status. Independence was a rather distant third place.

In the second plebiscite (1993) Status quo won very narrowly over statehood (48.6% - 46.3%)

In the third plebiscite (1998) growing dissatisfaction with the status quo added a new option to the ballot of "Territorial Commonwealth" plus the added option of "none of the above". None of the above won with 50.3% of the vote. Statehood came in second with 46.5% of the vote. Independence (2.5%), Free Association/Status Quo (0.3%) and Territorial Commonwealth (0.1%) were rejected.

In Puerto Rico's 4th plebiscite election on November 6, 2012 the majority of the people voting on the question voted FOR statehood. However the majority of the people who voted on that day did NOT vote for statehood.

On this election the question on Puerto Rico's political status was divided into two separate questions.

• Question 1) Do you want to maintain the current status (commonwealth) or do you want something different?
  • No won 54% to 46%
• Question 2) Do you want statehood, sovereign commonwealth (like Marshall Islands), or Independence
  • Statehood won 61.2% to Sovereign Commonwealth 33.3%, and Independence 5.5%.

It would seem pretty decisive. However over 1/4 of the people who voted that day, did not vote on the second question. The 26.5% under vote was blamed on confusion by those who voted "yes" on the first question thinking they shouldn't vote on the second question. It was argued that if those confused by the two-tiered question would have made the the outcome of the second question very different.

To muddy the waters some more, the political party in Puerto Rico that is for the status quo won the governor's race in a very, very narrow victory. So step 3 is not likely to happen at least this term.

3) The government of the territory has to petition the U.S. Congress for admission into the union. In this petition, the territory has to outline its state boundaries. In Puerto Rico's case, the Puerto Rican legislature has to pass a resolution. It has to be signed into law by the governor, and then turned over to the Puerto Rian resident delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives where he can submit it for consideration.

4) The U.S. Congress had to pass a resolution admitting the territory into the union.

Essentially, Congress has to pass a bill in both houses by a simple majority vote.

5) The President of the United States has to sign the resolution into law. Unless the resolution passed by Congress has a specific date of admission, the territory becomes a state the moment the President signs the bill into law.

So, when can all this happen? The answer is "no one knows. But it can happen."