Talk:2012 Puerto Rican status referendum

Puerto Rico’s Political Status and the 2012 Plebiscite: Background and Key Questions - Congressional Research Service CRS Report

Congressional Research Service Congressional Research Service (CRS) Report

Puerto Rico’s Political Status and the 2012 Plebiscite: Background and Key Questions

Governor of Puerto Rico Letter to the President - Official Results of the Puerto Rico Political Status Plebiscite Congressman Pierluisi on the Congress Inform the Congress

Governor of Puerto Rico Letter to the President - Official Results of the 2012 Puerto Rico Political Status Plebiscite

Congressman Pierluisi on the Congress oficially informing the results of the 2012 Plebiscite

Format for November 6, 2012 results

Percentage of Total Turnout
100.0% = 1,878,969 voters. (=78.2% of 2,402,941 registered voters.)
Keep current status, Yes or No.
44.1% = 828,077 Yes Votes
51.7% = 970,910 No Votes
4.3% = 79,982 Didn't choose yes or no
Choose type of status.
44.4% = 834,191 Statehood Votes
24.2% = 454,768 Sovereign Free Association with U.S
4.0% = 74,895 Independence Votes
27.4% = 515,115 Didn't choose any of above

I think the above is more comprehensive because everyone that participated in the election and asked what they think are counted. 99.36.23.236 (talk) 18:00, 4 February 2013 (UTC)

Results

Some editors have changed the results to show the blank ballots counted within the percentage for the second option. This is not how referendum results should be presented - percentages should only be calculated based on the valid votes - this is how reliable psephologist sources present such information.

The official results from CEEPUR use this correct format - see their website. This is repeated by reliable sources such as the Direct Democracy, the best source around for referendums. The Congressional Research Service specifically states that "The certified results list 498,604 “blank votes,” but do not include them when calculating percentages listed in the final results."). Number 57 10:28, 21 August 2014 (UTC)

• PS, I noticed the reference to Crimean status referendum, 2014 in the edit summary. This article is also wrong, but I note that it is the target of some serious nationalist edit wars, so I was going to wait until the fuss had died down to correct it. Number 57 10:37, 21 August 2014 (UTC)
• Please provide us a policy that states that, "This is not how referendum results should be presented - percentages should only be calculated based on the valid votes." Anyone can swing a referendum to favor a desired outcome by fooling outsiders. 25% of voters left the ballot in blank in protest. There was no "none of the above" option; this shows you how the outcome was premeditated. It was not a mere 1% that left the ballots blank. Twenty six motherfucking percent did. That's extraordinary. CEEPUR must follow the local law but in Wikipedia we adhere to WP:NPOV and it's obvious that if we follow the letter of the law in this case rather than the interpretation of the law, we would be pushing a biased agenda favoring statehood.

Let me give you an example: if I were to ask people, "Do you want to die?" Most people would answer, "No." But if in a second question I asked, "If you were to live forever how you would prefer to live: sick for the rest of your life, dismembered, deaf, or blind in one eye?" Most people would choose, "blind in one eye" but is this really a fair question? Where is the option for, "jesus I don't want to live forever in any of those conditions!" Since there's no such option on the ballot some people would leave the ballot blank in protest for the lack of "none of the above".

Here are several sources that explain this phenomena:

New York Daily News:

And the results were: 809,000 votes for statehood, only 73,000 for independence, and 441,000 for sovereign free association.

So a majority wants Puerto Rico to be the 51st state, right?

Not exactly. More than 470,000 people cast blank ballots in protest of the second part of the referendum, following a recommendation from the pro-commonwealth Popular Democratic Party.

So statehood did not actually receive 61% of the vote — until you ignore the nearly half a million people who cast blank ballots. If you factor in that protest vote, statehood garnered 45%, a result that’s virtually unchanged from previous referendums in 1993 and 1998.

Associated Press:

But Tuesday's vote comes with an asterisk and an imposing political reality: The island remains bitterly divided over its relationship to the United States and many question the validity of this week's referendum.

Nearly a half million voters chose to leave a portion of the ballot blank.

University of Edinburgh: Among the choices offered by the second question, federalism received 61%, sovereign ELA 33.3%, and independence 5.5%, but there were 480,918 blank votes, so if those votes were to be counted, federalism received only 46% of the vote.

NBC: Voters were asked two questions: the first asked if people favored the current status as a commonwealth or not, and the second listed the alternatives. The status options included becoming a state, and total independence. The White House, however, said the vote was unclear because 466,000 people did not specify a preference on an alternative status, primarily because the current commonwealth option was left out.

NBC:

White House spokesperson Jay Carney was asked today whether President Barack Obama intends to support a push for Puerto Rican statehood following plebiscite results in the island. Carney explained that the administration did not feel the plebiscite’s results were clear.

“This administration, as you know, is committed to the principle that the question of political status is a matter of self-determination for the people of Puerto Rico,” said Carney. He explained the results show Puerto Ricans do want a resolution to the status issue — about 54 percent of Puerto Ricans voted for a status change — but “I think the outcome was a little less clear than that because of the process itself,” Carney said.

As we must adhere to NPOV, we must present the facts "as is" and leave them to interpretation to our own readers. We just say: "hey statehood got these many numbers, independence these many, and blank or invalid got these many." That's it. Saying that statehood got 61% is equivocal and pushes an agenda. Laws are laws. When laws are unfair people protest against them. That's what they did. The party in power found a flaw and ran a referendum to favor their agenda. Puerto Ricans didn't have any tool against it except leaving the ballot blank intentionally to show the whole world that a significant minority of Puerto Ricans didn't consider the ballot fair.

A vote is a deliberate act towards a desired outcome. 25% of voters deliberately wanted to show to the world that they didn't agree with the options given on the second question. They casted a vote by leaving the ballot blank intentionally.

We have provided reliable sources to back up this argument.

—Ahnoneemoos (talk) 14:42, 21 August 2014 (UTC)

In response to your first query about how referendum results are presented, I provided the Direct Democracy link, but if you want other reliable or academic sources, try the IFES or one of the Nohlen books. You'll see that the total of the options given always adds up to 100%. Blank or invalid ballots do not count towards the percentages.

But anyway, I agree that we must present the facts as is, and as I demonstrated CEEPUR give the results using the standard method of calculation. Blank votes are not being excluded, as they are still included in the results table, and should definitely be referred to in the text along the lines you state above. However, they do not contribute to the %s given to the different options - this is not an NPOV issue, it is standard psephology. Cheers, Number 57 15:26, 21 August 2014 (UTC)

PS - please could you keep your response down to a readable level, as the wall of text above is WP:TLDR. Less than half a screen would be helpful. Thanks, Number 57 15:26, 21 August 2014 (UTC)