I was already planning to route my visit to Puerto Rico through Spain, just in case Romney won. I sent my ballot about three weeks before election day. Hopefully my vote counted. In Florida you never know. In my case it was a double whammy. Absentee and voting in Florida! Here in Switzerland and many other European countries the US elections were attentively watched and followed. The TV News devoted half of the show to the US elections on November 6 with correspondents in Chicago, Washington, Tallahassee and NY. They also had a late show on the elections. Some of the best things of the US elections, were Obama’s victory, new and better Democrats in the Senate, (ie. E. Warren), and the fact that the Affordable Health Care act won’t be repealed.

In my dear Island of Puerto Rico, the colonial elections were also held, on November 6 too, and to my surprise, the Pro-Statehood party (who is in power) lost the elections to the Pro-Commonwealth (status quo) party. The election results will not change the colonial relationship between the US and PR, but some people think the winners will be less corrupt than the losers. We’ll see…

…for now, Puerto Ricans in the Island who are US Citizens from birth have served in the US Army but cannot vote in the US elections. In fact, thousands of Puerto Ricans have fought and died in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait, Irak and Afghanistan, but they do not have a voting representative in the US Congress nor can they vote for any US political representative.

 

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