The certified final results of the 2024 plebiscite in Puerto Rico have been published and provided to the Governor of Puerto Rico, the President of the United States, the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico, and both U.S. and Puerto Rico legislators as well as the Attorney General.
The certification of the results was delayed by a variety of issues, but these are the official, final results.
Statehood was the majority position, with 58.61% of the votes.
Sovereignty in Free Association with the United States received 29.57% of the votes.
Independence brought up the rear with 11.82% of the votes.
“Any other interpretation of the results,” reads the report, “shall be contrary to the rights of a majority of U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico who cast their vote willingly, validly, and democratically, in accordance with federal law, the laws, and case law of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico.
Other interpretation?
With nearly 59% of the votes, statehood is obviously the winner of the vote. What other interpretation could there be?
The author of Prexit left us a message in social media with a different interpretation: “43% voted for national sovereignty options and the majority that voted, did NOT support statehood.”
We are reminded of the online fad known as “girl math.” That’s a sexist term, obviously, but it refers to the practice of messing with numbers to make them appear to say something other than what they actually say. Return an item to a store for $50 and then buy something for $100 — you just spent $50 and saved $50, which makes the new item basically free.
The same logic works on the plebiscite vote. Sure, 58.6% of the votes on the ballot were for statehood, but 41.39% of the votes were NOT for statehood. In fact, since free association is basically independence, 41.39% of the votes were basically for independence.
We’re not sure how the commenter made 41.39% equal 43%, but maybe that also is girl math.
Another favorite example of girl math regarding plebiscite votes is this claim from the new resident commissioner: “This year, that number dropped to 47 percent, when you count the blank or void ballots that thousands cast, either in protest of the exclusion of the island’s current commonwealth status or of the referendum’s nonbinding nature. Support for statehood thus dropped below 50 percent.” This quote predated the final results, but even that early count only drops below 50% because the speaker counted blank or void ballots — which by their very nature do not count. The ballot clearly stated that blank votes wouldn’t count, so there is no chance that a tradition of counting blank votes deceived people into casting them in hopes that they would count. We have heard that claim before, too.
Note that, even if it were true that only 47% of valid votes favored statehood — and that is not true — then it would still be the winner of the vote. Even if we combine the imaginary 47% and the imaginary 43% that was basically independence, we would still have a winning vote for statehood.
In fact, according to the certified results, 58.61% voted for statehood and only 11.82% voted for independence.
The final bit of girl math is the claim that since 11% is way more votes than independence has ever gotten before, it is basically a win for independence.
Should we call it separatist math?
We don’t like the term “girl math,” even though it’s a joke. The continual attempts to deceive voters is not a joke. It’s election denial, and part of a history of deception perpetrated against Puerto Rico for decades. The honest truth is that Puerto Rico has voted for statehood four times: in 2012, 2017, 2020, and 2024. There are anti-statehood factions, but statehood is the majority position. In a democracy, the majority vote is the result of the vote. .
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