Cliff Stearns: “Basically, this is an amendment to provide for a runoff referendum if the first referendum required in the bill does not…”

“Basically, this is an amendment to provide for a runoff referendum if the first referendum required in the bill does not result in a 50 plus percent vote for independence or statehood. My amendment is a simple method of improving H.R. 856 to make the self-determination process more fair for the Puerto Rican people. My amendment seeks to abbreviate this self-determination process by holding a runoff referendum no more than 90 days after the first referendum. Because there would be only two choices at this point, voters could more easily achieve a binding majority vote for statehood, commonwealth, or independence in my proposed runoff. Such a process would avoid the lengthy process we have in the bill. Let us review this again. First, should the runoff referendum result in a majority for one of the 3 processes, yet it did not have a full 51 percent, then we would have another election, 90 days later, and the top 2 would be voted on to see which one would be the winner. The runoff would serve to coalesce the interests of the voters because those who first voted for the third option would then be forced to vote for the first or second options in the runoff. This knowledge of Puerto Rico's preference on the issues could help us here in Congress tailor future referenda to their preferences.”