Comments on: Puerto Rico Democratic Primary Had Extremely Low Turnout

By: Raul

Raul — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:59:39 +0000

The reason why the primaries had a very low turnout is because Puerto Ricans national identity is alive and kicking. The pro american statehooders for Puerto Rico reached their electoral ceiling of 380,000. The rest (2.0 million) do not care and followed the boycott by the center left wing of the ruling party. The governor will be attending the UNITED NATIONS on june 9th, he will denounce Puerto Rico’s lack of sovereignty to the world.

By: Juan Jose Nolla

Juan Jose Nolla — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:52:52 +0000

I agree with Ricardo. The reasons for the “low” turnout in yesterday’s primary have nothing to do with the support that independence has in Puerto Rico. Independence has not gathered more than 4.4% of the vote (the gubernatorial candidates of the Puerto Rico Independence Party have obtained, at best, a little bit over 5% since 1976 based on other issues).
Another reason for the low turnout is that there was no competition between the statehood and commonwealth parties, as both Clinton and Obama had pro-statehood and pro-commonwealth supporters.
When there has been intraparty competition, turnout has been higher. In 1980, for instance, the pro-statehood party and its leader, Gov. Romero, endorsed President Carter, while the pro-commonwealth party endorsed Senator Kennedy. The result was a turnout of over 800,000.
In 1988, there was a very fierce competition between the two parties, with each filing its own uncommitted slate, and there was a turnout of over 600,000 (only about 300,000 people voted in the presidential preference ballot since none of the candidates actually campaigned in Puerto Rico in 1988).
Another factor was that Obama received the “kiss of death” when he was endorsed by indicted governor Anibal Acevedo-Vila. The governor of Puerto Rico has a very high disapproval rating and people decided to punish the governor by voting for Senator Clinton.
Still another reason for the lower than expected turnout is that the Obama people were saying that the race was over, which caused people not to vote.
Finally, another reason for the lower than expected turnout is that many people decided that voting in the primary without being able to vote in the general election is a worthless gesture.

By: Tom Yager

Tom Yager — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:38:56 +0000

“These are my thoughts guys:

Obama has a 115 pledged delegate lead over Hillary. Since the delegates are to represent the voters of each state, then there is no way possible Hillary can have more popular voters than Obama.”

There is a certain A. Gore who would disagree that More Electoral Votes = More Popular Votes

By: Ricardo Aponte

Ricardo Aponte — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 01:27:21 +0000

There are two reasons for the low turnout in Puerto Rico and its not the independence supporters. The separatist movement never garners morfe than 4% in any election or referendum. The two real reasons are that the majority of Puerto Ricans lean Republican and are conservatives. The other reason is that Obama aligned himself with the corrupt Governro Acevedo, indicted on 19 criminal counts by the U.S. District Attorney. People rejected Obama for keeping bad company…

By: luis

luis — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:24:15 +0000

Too bad CNN, MSNBC and the rest are not as well informed as you are Mr. Winger. Disinformation ,mixed with arrogance reign during the Puerto Rico primary in the US media.

By: Demo Rep

Demo Rep — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:21:45 +0000

Abolish all EVIL MORON caucuses, primaries and conventions.

Uniform definition of Elector
Equal nominating petitions for ballot access.
Approval Voting for NONPARTISAN executive / judicial offices.

Before it is TOO LATE — and a gerrymander Civil WAR II starts when a Prez candidate shoots off his/her mouth by making tyrant comments.

See the 1860 gerrymander election for Prez.

The alarm bells are ringing — the EVIL party hacks love their EVIL machinations about Prez nominations.

See the ROT collapse of the Roman Republic in 120 B.C. – 27 B.C.

Is EVIL history repeating ???
—
Puerto Rico — Independence, become another gerrymander State or merge with Florida ???

Obviously the 1898 Spanish-American War folks are now 99.99 plus percent gone. 2008-1898 = 110.

By: SMS

SMS — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:53:44 +0000

These are my thoughts guys:

Obama has a 115 pledged delegate lead over Hillary. Since the delegates are to represent the voters of each state, then there is no way possible Hillary can have more popular voters than Obama.

Each state has the right to chose the manner in which they conduct their elections for the presidential nominee, they can have either caucus or primaries. Based on the number of votes, delegates are chosen to represent the voters choice. Just based on that alone, Clinton’s claim of leading in the popular vote has to be wrong. However, let’s calculate a possible popular vote based on Hillary’s numbers.

Hillary has 17,692,901 including Michigan. From those votes she received 1624 pledged delegates. These are the delegates based on the actual votes. That amounts to each delegate representing 10,895 votes. Now, Obama received 1739 pledged delegates, to keep this simple we will multiply this by the Clinton factor 10,895 votes per delegate and we arrive with Obama having 18,946,405 popular votes!

I figure this math is as good as the Clintons