Puerto Rico - 16 percent turnout

[RamboLiberal]

From Daily Kos: That was turnout. 16 percent.

For some bizarre reason, Puerto Rico has more delegates than 27 U.S. states. For a territory that has zero electoral votes in November to have a greater say than over half of the states in the United States isn't just bizarre on the merits, but it's also an insult to those 27 states.

I'm all for Puerto Rican statehood, and hope to see it happen if the people of Puerto Rico so want it. I love my boricua brothers and sisters so much I actually married one. But until they are a U.S. state, I hope that their influence in the primaries is drastically reduced in the future. If nothing else, it would spare candidates from spending time and money in a state that has no bearing in November.

Not to mention that Puerto Ricans, given the option of having a say in an election they are ultimately barred from participating in (unless they move to the mainland), had better things to do than vote. Not surprising, perhaps, given that there isn't even a Democratic Party in the island.

So let's end this half-way status for Puerto Rico, and let's make sure that the people living in the United States have the greatest say in who our nominee is going to be.

http://www.dailykos.com/

I agree. I was astounded a couple of weeks ago to find out that Puerto Rico got more delegates than 27 states. Nothing against Puerto Rico, but if they can't vote in the GE, why should they have so many delegates in picking the Dem candidate? BTW, this turnout was less than half of their 800,000 voter turnout for the 1980 Carter vs. Kennedy turnout as pointed out in this article. Oh and the delusional Lanny Davis was predicting a 2 million voter turnout.

[peoli]

1. seriously, what if PR determined the nominee. How fucked would that be?

[grantcart]

3. that would rate 29 on the fucked up scale on a maximum of 30

[Growler]

6. PR should have SOME delegates

but it shouldn't have that large a number!

I like the idea that a Democratic President represents ALL the people, and think this is a good way to reflect that choice... but the large number that PR gets is a bit outrageous, IMO.

[BlooInBloo]

2. Their delegate contribution *does* see a bit disproportionate, but whatever.

[theboss]

4. I've never understood the role of Puerto Rico, Guam, etc in the primary

Is Puerto Rican statehood even part of the platform? I honestly don't know.

Does Puerto Rico even want statehood at this point? Again, I don't know.

[Adelante]

5. So why does PR have that many delegates?

Does anyone understand it?

[RL3AO]

7. Must be population.

If it were a state, it would rank 27th in population.

[Tom Rinaldo]

9. Some one here once posted that they earn bonus delegates

from the DNC by agreeing to vote so late in the process.

[Adelante]

10. Well, that makes more sense nt

[tritsofme]

8. The caucus system is completely unrelated to the GE as well.

Yet we have all sorts of strange rules in our primaries.