Puerto Rico Governor, Wanda Vázquez, announced on Saturday that she would hold a nonbinding referendum in November to decide whether Puerto Rico should become a U.S. state, a move that comes amid growing disillusion with the island’s U.S. territorial status.
For the first time in the island’s history, the referendum will ask a single, simple question: Should Puerto Rico be immediately admitted as a U.S. state?
In parallel with the referendum, Puerto Ricans will have to elect the local government.
It is an answer that requires approval from the U.S. Congress and a question that outraged the island’s small group of independence supporters and members of the main opposition Popular Democratic Party.
Puerto Rico maintains the status of the associated state since 2017. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens but cannot vote in U.S. presidential elections. Moreover, while the island is exempt from the U.S. federal income tax, it pays Social Security, Medicare, and local taxes and receives less federal funding than U.S. states.
