NO TWO BITES FROM THE APPLE – By J. Raymond Watson

NO TWO BITES FROM THE APPLE

In our American democratic system of public voting, no one gets two bites from the apple. You either have your cake or you’ve eaten it, never both.

United States

In our 2012 Election Day plebiscite, there were two (2) matters to be voted upon. The first was whether to remain with Commonwealth as-is, an unincorporated territory owned by the USA, YES or NO. Thus, the current Commonwealth was prominently on that ballot. Whoever wanted to keep on going as usual with ELA had only to vote YES. Nothing simpler.

The NO won by a considerable majority, thus rejecting remaining with Commonwealth as at present.

The second was a multiple choice of non-territorial possession status options, for those who voted NO on staying as-is, to select from. Those status options were the ones recognized world-wide, by the UN, etc.

For those who had voted YES to remain with the current Commonwealth territory to have also voted on non-territorial status options would have been the No-No, two bites from the apple! Thus, the ballots left in blank on the second matter, the non-territorial status options, are logical, having being of those who had already voted YES to the first matter. Again, no two bites from the apple!

In our American democracy, those who abstain or vote in blank are accepting beforehand the choice made by those who had the right to vote; in this case, all those who voted NO on staying with current Commonwealth. These did their patriotic duty and their votes deserve to be respected and implemented as cast, with Statehood selected by a substantial majority.

As stated in my previous letters to this valuable Section, blank ballots are abstentions, to be noted but not counted. It is absurd to assume that those blank ballots be counted against the winner among the non-territorial status options, Statehood.

J. Raymond Watson                   Guaynabo            6 November 2014