Here's why millions of Americans in Puerto Rico, other territories can't vote for president

(NEXSTAR) — More than 3.5 million people live in U.S. territories, according to the most recent Census data. Yet, despite their citizenship status, Americans in Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Northern Mariana Islands can't vote in the upcoming presidential election.

American Samoa, while another territory, is a little different — its residents are U.S. nationals rather than citizens. But they, too, won’t be able to cast a ballot on Nov. 5.

This restriction is part of a longstanding policy that lawmakers and nonprofit organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have often criticized.

It all boils down to statehood and our unique electoral system.

The Electoral College, a process established by the U.S. Constitution, determines who will become president. Each state as well as Washington, D.C., have a certain number of electors, based on their members in Congress, adding up to 538 electors in total.

When citizens vote, they’re actually voting for a group of electors pledged to their candidate. These electors meet in December to cast their official votes. Most states give all their electoral votes to the candidate who wins the state’s popular vote, while Maine and Nebraska divide theirs proportionally. So your vote still matters. To win, a candidate needs 270 electoral votes.

Although Congress gave D.C. the right to participate in the Electoral College with the 23rd Amendment in 1961, no similar amendment has been granted to the five U.S. territories.

Residents in these territories can still vote in presidential primaries because those are organized by political parties, not the federal government. This means they can help pick each party’s nominee, but not the president in the general election.

As the National Archives explains on its website, "selecting delegates and voting at a [party's] national convention is unrelated to the Electoral College process."

However, if American citizens residing in U.S. territories relocate to any of the 50 states and register to vote, they can participate in presidential elections.

In February, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights released a memo highlighting the impact of territorial voting restrictions.

The memo includes testimonies from advocates like George Laws García, director of the Puerto Rico Statehood Council, who argued that while territories are subject to federal laws, their residents lack voting representation in Congress. This, he said, creates a "democratic deficit."

Legal challenges have attempted to address the issue. For example, in Igartúa de la Rosa v. United States, Puerto Rican residents argued that excluding them from presidential elections violated their rights. Courts, however, ruled that federal voting rights are reserved for state residents as outlined by the Constitution.

The question of whether territories, especially Puerto Rico, should pursue statehood, maintain their current status or gain full independence, has been debated for decades.

Opponents of statehood for Puerto Rico are concerned it could impact the island's cultural identity, WLRN previously reported.

Lawmakers reintroduced the Puerto Rico Status Act in April 2023, which would allow Puerto Rican residents to vote on the island's fate. A previous version of the bill passed in the House of Representatives in December 2022 but stalled in the Senate.