So if Puerto Rico becomes a state.....

[steelmania75]

Currently, the vote in Puerto Rico favors statehood, but the final decision is not made until approval by Congress.

The demographics of Puerto Rico according to Wikipedia as of 2010 are:

75.8% white(mostly Spanish origin)
12.4% black
11.1% Mixed or other

The religion is 97% Christian, and 85% Roman Catholic.

The total population is 3,706,690 which is right in between Oklahoma and Connecticut, meaning it would receive 7 electoral votes if it were to become a state.

My questions to you guys are:
What's the likelihood of Puerto Rico becoming a state?
Who would Puerto Rico most likely lean to in presidential elections?
What states would lose electoral votes in Puerto Rico becoming a state?

[sinkingfeeling]

1. How could any of those GOP English-only people vote to let Spanish speakers in?

[pampango]

3. The 'baggers spent all that time and money building a wall to keep Spanish speakers out.

They are not likely to allow them 'in' through another door.

I know these 'Spanish speakers' are different. They are 'legal' citizens (of a special category who can live where they want but cannot vote for president or congress) so the right cannot really keep the 'out' physically. All the 'baggers are left with is keeping Puerto Ricans 'out' of becoming full citizens who can vote like the rest of us.

[NoOneMan]

2. I think the American people should be firmly against this

What a nightmare--think of all the flags that need to be replaced.

[tarheelsunc]

7. Wonder if people said that about replacing the 13-star flag...

[Agnosticsherbet]

4. No state looses electoral votes. The Constituion says...

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

So it would be two plus however many Congressmen their popuation gets.

[Angleae]

5. The number of representatives in the house is capped at 435 by law.

If PR gains 5 then 5 states will each lose 1 and their corresponding EV.

[Agnosticsherbet]

9. There are 435 members of Congress and 5 non-voting delegates

from Washington DC, Guam, American Samoa, US Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, and 1 Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico.

There is no such constitutional limit on the number of Congressmen, it is a matter of statute. When Hawaii and Alaska were admitted, they bumped the number up to 437 until the next congressional election and then took it back to 435. Admitting it as a state would likely come along with bumping up the number of congressmen by the number equivalent to other states of the same size, or just adding 1 because that is the minimum under the Constitution, for some period of time, but they could also just increase the number permanently by changing the law.

[Angleae]

6. The states that would lose a representative and corrisponding EV would likely be one of those

that just gained one due to the 2010 census.

Arizona
Florida (x2)
Georgia
Nevada
Texas (x4)
Utah
Washington

[Proud Liberal Dem]

8. My guess is that the (current) Republicans would not allow this to occur

for the same reason that DC will (probably) never become a state, at least not anytime soon: They would almost certainly lean Democratic



Would be cool to add another state to our country and didn't even know that this was going to be voted on but if it adds more Democrats to the electoral equation, the Republicans would never allow it IMHO.