2024 PR Status Plebiscite

The 2024 Puerto Rico Status Plebiscite—a contest modeled after the Nydia Velazquez+AOC/Jenniffer Gonzalez Colón Compromise PR Status act's 1st round pitted the non-territorial/non-colonial options of Stathood, Independence with Sovereign Free Assosiation, and Full Independence against each other

Resulting in Statehood winning a comanding majority of the votes cast in the Plebiscite.

Herein, the campaign was dominated by Pro-Statehood pacs and campaigning by the PNP, with Pro-Statehood super packs spending over $1.4 Million in favor of getting people to vote and to vote for Statehood in the plebiscite.

Beyond the PNP, the MVC, PIP, and PPD—ineffectively—called for a boycott of the pleblicite because they claimed that it was a "waste of money" or they were bothered that it didn't include the Colonial Commonwealth Status—per the Nydia Velazquez/JGo Compromise bill.

The PD took an agnostic position towards voting on, or what people voted for in the plebiscite.

However, none of the parties actively campaigned on boycotting the question, with the calls merely being official positions—in doing so, despite the calls, there was a limited Blank vote when compared to the 2012 high of 25%

The Pro-statehood campaign, in turn was focused on multiple modes of convincing people to vote for the plebiscite (against the aforementioned party positions) and to not vote for Sovereign Free Assosiation, due to mass voter confusion on it potentiall being a "reformed commonwealth system"

In one ad, the Pro-Statehood Pacs highlighted the Support from 26 Democratic Senators as well as Chuck Schumer and the Biden White house for the defined non-colonial non-territorial status options (without mentioning party affiliation), as well as the passage of the Nydia-JGo bill

In other ads, they focused on trying to, ineffectively per-results, clear up what was meant by Sovereign Free-Assosiation—focusing on the fact that it is another form of independence that puts U.S. Citizenship and Federal programs at significant risk.

Beyond this, once the results started rolling in, Statehood overperformed the average of the polling that Pegged it at the low-to-mid 50%s among ballots cast; reaching 58.6%—29% over it's closest status alternative Sovereign Free Assosiation

Compared to the polling, the average underestimated Statehood and Sovereign Free Assosiation Support, and significantly overestimated independence and abstention support

When taking a look at the support including the Blank Ballots, we find that PPD supporters were by far the likeliest voters to blank their ballots—expressing displeasure with the current status being left off the ballot as perscribed in the Nydia-JGo decolonization PR Status act.

Said Party also made up a significant share of abstentions in the plebiscite, with Juan Dalmau voters making up the remainder—those who supported independence on the plebiscite were also incredibly likely to vote for Alianza/PIP's Juan Dalmau

with the two precincts independence won—Viejo San Juan and the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras—being hotbeds of Dalmau/Alianza support.