Puerto Ricans will go to the polls on 11 June to decide if their country will become a State of the United States. This is the fourth such poll (it’s a plebiscite), the last one was in 2012 (80 percent turnout) but all the previous votes were considered inconclusive. The move could have significant financial benefits for the island but it would be up to the US Congress to decide if Puerto Rico is to become the 51st State (too bad Australia, you will have to shoot for 52nd). There is, unsurprisingly, concern about the wording on the ballot paper. Currently, Puerto Ricans are US citizens but without voting rights. They have an observer only in the US Congress. If granted US statehood, Puerto Rico would be the poorest US State, twice as poor as the next poorest, Mississipi.
Woman for an Australian Republic, Adelaide Ironside, republican poet and artist 1831-1867
Self portrait 1855, Newcastle Art Gallery NSW
