Second-Class Citizens: A Survey of Territorial Voting Rights in the United States

Keywords: Territories of the United States, Voting Rights, Disenfranchisement, Political Geography, Congressional Government
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Tuesday
Session Start / End Time: 3/1/2022 08:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 3/1/2022 09:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 3

Abstract

Service members stationed abroad, citizens living overseas, and even astronauts on board the ISS can
participate in federal elections. Meanwhile, citizen residents of the five permanently inhabited
Territories of the United States are constitutionally barred from making their voices heard. As such, they are not eligible to vote for their commander in chief. This adds more than three million people to the list of disenfranchised citizens, almost all of which being members of racial or ethnic minorities. As non-sovereign entities, the islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands are dealing with a limited degree of self-government, and also a limited degree of political representation in the bicameral legislature of the United States.
This presentation is set out to target the territorial voting rights issue as one of the many social, political, and economic challenges the Territories of the United States are facing under their government by the Congress. Locals, advocates, and civil rights organizations have stood up for equal voting rights and with that a more equal citizenship for the territorial residents for decades, albeit without much success.
A survey of the history of the respective legal challenges as well as the status quo of territorial voting rights will lay the foundation for an analysis of the possible development they will undergo in the 117th Congress and beyond. The presentation will also track the progress of house-introduced bills as well as recommended changes.