Ny Safidinao

Voting rights has become an increasingly partisan issue. In Wisconsin, new voter ID laws led to brutal lines at the polls in urban areas—a development designed, even according to Republicans themselves , to suppress Democratic turnout . In Virginia at the end of April, governor Terry McAuliffe re-enfranchised all felons who had finished parole. In theory, the move returned the vote to 200,000 people. This was a refutation of a policy originally designed to explicitly deny black people the vote . It was also, potentially, a way to give more votes to more minority and poor voters, and tip a narrowly balanced purple state more Democratic in the US presidential election. The focus on voter IDs and felon disenfranchisement —while important—has inadvertently obscured other voting rights issues. Every year, with little comment, the United States denies millions of people representation in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and other territories. Washington, DC, has a population o...

1. Can Republicans really change the rules in Cleveland to block Trump’s nomination? In a story titled “ Five Ways the Republican Convention Could Still Be Contentious ,” Jeremy Peters of the New York Times reported Sunday that at least some Republicans “hostile” to Donald Trump continue to daydream about derailing his nomination at the last minute in Cleveland. How? By changing the rules that govern the party’s nominating process. Peters went on to outline two possible scenarios. The first, which he labeled the “nuclear option,” could only be “described anonymously” by a rules expert. “It is tantalizing,” Peters explained, “because it is so simple”: Mr. Trump could be stopped with just a single-word change requiring the nominee to receive a supermajority of votes at the convention rather than the majority currently required. Mr. Trump, after all, had floated changing majority to plurality when it was not clear he would win the 1,237 delegates he needed. The second option, according to...

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas announced Tuesday that he was ending his presidential campaign, bowing to the reality that his crushing loss in Indiana all but assured the nomination of Donald J. Trump . “From the beginning, I have said that I will continue on as long as there is a viable path to victory,” he told supporters here. “Tonight, I am sorry to say, it appears that path has been closed.” Mr. Cruz, who staked his bid in the Republican race on a message of conservative purity and religious faith, had suffered through weeks of setbacks as the primary calendar reached the Northeast, where Mr. Trump significantly expanded his lead. But the senator had hoped to find more favorable terrain in Indiana, dashing across the state for over a week in a last-ditch effort to unify Republicans who viewed Mr. Trump’s success as an existential threat to the party. Since entering the race over a year ago, Mr. Cruz had far exceeded most expectations, energizing hard-line conservatives and casting h...

Hillary Clinton stumped in Brooklyn Saturday, wooing Latino voters and exercising some restraint when presented with some New York delectables. Strawberry or pineapple? — Hillary Clinton could have gotten any kind of cheesecake at Junior's — the venerable Flatbush Avenue diner. Alas, not even a taste. "I learned early on not to eat in front of you," Clinton told photographers. "So I'm sitting here just pining, pining for a bite." Bite or no bite, the Democratic front-runner found backers in her surprise visit. Later Saturday it was a Latino-centered crowd. She sprinkled her stump speech with calls for immigration overhaul, noting her rival Bernie Sanders has opposed it. Loud applause greeted calls for bankruptcy protection in Puerto Rico. "When I was a Senator from New York I considered myself a Senator also representing Puerto Rico and I will keep fighting for Puerto Rico," Clinton said. A fifth of New York State is Latino and N...

NEW YORK – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders issued the following statement today calling on Congress and the Obama administration to put the people of Puerto Rico over the interests of financial firms in any legislation to address the Puerto Rican debt crisis: “There is a humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico that Congress and the administration must address as soon as possible. But let me be clear: Establishing an unelected oversight board that would be given the power to inflict even more economic pain on the 3.5 million American citizens in Puerto Rico would be a move in exactly the wrong direction. It must be defeated. “The economic situation in Puerto Rico will not be improved by closing more schools, firing more teachers, laying-off more workers, slashing pensions and suspending the minimum wage. Instead, Puerto Rico must be given the time it needs to restructure its debt and grow its economy in a fair way. “Congress must act immediately to give Puerto Rico the same authority granted to ...

For Puerto Ricans, this is a significant position to take. The island is over $70 billion in debt and has defaulted on debt payments twice. As Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro García Padilla told CNN , "We're out of cash." The tanking economy is causing a mass population exodus from the island to the mainland. Fewer Puerto Rican residents to pay taxes means more debt, and the whole crisis has been ominously referred to as a " death spiral ." If Puerto Rico gains statehood, it will be able to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy with federal protection, meaning the island could restructure its debts, negotiate in court with bondholders, and cover about a third of its debt . If not, Puerto Rico and its citizens will remain in the economic crisis indefinitely. A 115-year-old Supreme Court decision ( blasted by John Oliver last year ) ensures that no U.S. territories are allowed to vote in the general election. While Republicans in Puerto Rico voted clearly in favor of ...

Puerto Rico holds its Republican primary on March 6, 2016 and Democratic caucus on June 5. 67 delegates are at stake for the Democrats and 23 delegates for the Republicans. Election results are refreshed automatically every 30 seconds after polls close at 2:00 p.m. ET. There is no need to refresh the page to see the latest data. Mar. 6 * Vote Data compiled by the AP Puerto Rico Delegate Estimates Feb. 1 Iowa () Feb. 9 New Hampshire () Feb. 20 Nevada (D) South Carolina (R) Feb. 23 Nevada (R) Feb. 27 South Carolina (D) Mar. 1 Alabama () Alaska (R) American Samoa (D) Arkansas () Colorado (D) Georgia () Massachusetts () Minnesota () Oklahoma () Tennessee () Texas () Vermont () Virginia () Mar. 5 Kansas () Kentucky (R) Louisiana () Maine (R) Nebraska (D) Mar. 6 Maine (D) Puerto Rico (R) Democrats Total Votes % Delegates Democratic Results Not Yet Available Republicans Total Votes % Delegates (23) Rubio 27,485 ...

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida won the Puerto Rico primary on Sunday, giving him a much-needed victory after a string of losses that threatened to push the Republican presidential nomination further out of his reach. In Maine, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont won the Democratic caucuses on Sunday, according to The Associated Press. The victory in Puerto Rico came a day after Mr. Rubio was shut out of first-place finishes in all four of Saturday’s Republican nominating contests. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas won the caucuses in Kansas and Maine, and Donald J. Trump won the Kentucky caucuses and the Louisiana primary. The 23 delegates awarded to Mr. Rubio from Puerto Rico still leave him trailing far behind Mr. Cruz and Mr. Trump. Saturday’s results helped Mr. Cruz emerge as the main alternative for Republicans hoping to halt Mr. Trump’s momentum. Mr. Cruz has now beaten Mr. Trump, who holds the lead in delegates, in six states. Mr. Rubio’s lone previous victory came in the Minnesota caucu...

Puerto Ricoresidents may find themselves waiting longer than anticipated to vote during Sunday’s Republican Party presidential primary because of funding cuts triggered by the island’s financial crisis. The commonwealth will operate 110 polling stations, down from about 1,500 in 2012 when residents voted in local elections and the presidential primary on the same day, according to Liza Garcia Velez, president of Puerto Rico’s election commission. It may be the one way for territory residents, who aren’t eligible to vote in the November U.S. presidential election, to voice their displeasure as the commonwealth and its agencies struggle under a $70 billion debt load. Island officials are urging Congress to help Puerto Rico reduce those obligations by granting some form of restructuring powers. The island’s localities are unable to file for municipal bankruptcy, as Detroit did. “I wish we could have more, but we have to do it with that number,” said Zoraida Fonalledas, national commi...

Thousands of inmates lined up in prisons across Puerto Rico on Friday to cast early ballots in the U.S. territory’s Republican primary, some saying they hoped the elections can help lift the island out of an economic crisis. At least 6,500 of the island’s 11,500 prisoners are registered to vote, and government officials said this year’s turnout was strong. Even prisoners not registered are allowed to participate in the open primaries, which are held two days ahead of the vote for the general population. The island’s Republican primary is Sunday while Democrats vote in June. Some said they were prompted to vote by Puerto Rico’s decade-long economic woes and concerns for relatives who have left for the U.S. mainland, seeking jobs. “I wanted to take action this time,” said Omar Quintana, 37, a first-time voter who is serving a six-year sentence for robbery at Institution 1072 in Bayamon, just southwest of the capital of San Juan. “Maybe this will improve if we become a U.S. state.” ...

Puerto Rico is not a state. It has no electoral college votes for president, no senators, and no representatives. After the grind of the 2016 primary season and the fireworks of post-convention campaigning, November ballots in Puerto Rico will not feature the names of those running for America’s highest offices. However, as one of the most important financial and political crises in Puerto Rico’s recent history unfolds, it is still primed to make a statement in the presidential race. Like all other inhabited territories of the United States—Guam, the United States Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa—Puerto Rico is part of the primary process for both the Republican and Democratic parties. But unlike its fellow territories, which are comparatively tiny, Puerto Rico’s population of 3.7 million is roughly similar to Oklahoma’s. Puerto Rico’s size gives it real power in determining party nominees. It has more Republican delegates than Vermont and more Democrati...

The religious development coalition Jubilee USA is launching radio spots focused on Puerto Rico's debt crisis ahead of "Super Tuesday" presidential primary elections. The religious development coalition Jubilee USA is launching radio spots focused on Puerto Rico's debt crisis ahead of "Super Tuesday" presidential primary elections. The radio placements will air on 125 stations in the "make or break" state of Texas asking the presidential candidates to address the crisis in the US Territory. Puerto Rico's government is $72 billion in debt and closed 200 schools, cut health care and used pension funds to make debt payments. Puerto Rico's 3.5 million residents - nearly half of whom live in poverty - are US citizens and are eligible to vote in the US presidential primaries. The debt crisis helped push 10% of the island's population to leave for the US mainland over the past decade. Many of those citizens will vote in primaries on Super Tu...

  DES MOINES, Iowa — Hillary Clinton appeared to squeak past insurgent rival Sen. Bernie Sanders in Iowa’s presidential vote, according to results Tuesday, redeeming a crushing loss here in 2008 but revealing the shortcomings of a candidate who once seemed invincible. Results from Iowa’s Democratic Party, announcing 100 percent of the precincts counted, gave Clinton a whisker-thin margin: 49.8 percent to Sanders’s 49.6 percent — setting up what is likely to become a prolonged nominating contest. Under the state’s caucus system, delegates are assigned by percentage of the vote. The outcome from Monday’s caucuses was a relief for Clinton loyalists confronted in recent weeks with the wrenching possibility that Clinton’s second-chance candidacy, like her first, might falter out of the gate and never recover. It was also a shock to the system that a candidate universally known in Iowa, with deep pockets and long experience, could come close to losing to a relative unknown who wa...