In his 2013 State of the Union Address, President Obama said that when any American is denied the right to vote because of where they live, “we betray our ideals.” This month, President Obama is getting ready to give another speech to the country. At the same time, nearly 600 soldiers from Guam are coming home after serving for nine months in Afghanistan. Even though these brave Americans answered the call to fight for democracy abroad, they are not allowed to have democracy at home. When the 2016 General Election comes around, they won’t be able to vote for President. Instead, they will only be able to choose a Delegate to Congress, who doesn’t have a vote.
A car bomb killed two Guam soldiers, Spc. Dwayne Flores, 22, and Sgt. Eugene Aguon, 23, during their first month in Afghanistan. Statistics from the Washington Post’s “Faces of the Fallen” show that Guam has had 450 percent more deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan than the rest of the country as a whole. Maybe that’s because Guam has more recruits per person than any other state. According to the U.S. Census, 1 in 20 people who live on Guam are veterans. During World War II, the Japanese were cruel to the people of Guam, and more than a thousand of them died. Today, Guam’s location on the edge of Asia helps protect the country, but it also puts its people in a dangerously close proximity to North Korea and other threats.
People who live on Guam are not the only ones who can’t vote for president. Nor can people who live in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, or the Northern Mariana Islands. These five areas have a total population of over 4 million, which is more than about half of the states and about the same as the six smallest states put together. More than 20,000 people from these places have served in the military in Iraq and Afghanistan. These places are home to more than 125,000 veterans. Still, because of where they live, they can’t vote like other Americans can.
In his 2014 State of the Union Address, President Obama is not likely to say anything about these people. Presidents and candidates for president should think twice before ignoring them, though. First of all, they do vote in the presidential primaries. They did so in both the Republican Primary in 2012 and the Democratic Primary in 2008. Mitt Romney went to Puerto Rico to campaign, and his son Matt Romney went to Guam to campaign. Second, more than 5 million people who live in the states have strong connections to the territories. Only in Florida do there live more than 850,000 Puerto Ricans, and the 2012 election was decided by just 75,000 votes in Florida. The swing states of Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina are home to another 600,000.
Residents of U.S. territories should be able to vote no matter what party they belong to. Overall, these people are swing voters who care about family and religion. Guam has had as many Republican governors as Democratic ones, and the current governor, Eddie Calvo, is a Republican. Luis Fortuno is a rising star in the Republican Party. He used to be the governor of Puerto Rico. Most of the people who live in these areas are Latino, Asian, or Pacific Islander, which are groups that both parties need to reach out to more and more if they want to win national elections.
Your right to vote shouldn’t depend on where you live, whether it’s in a state, territory, or the District of Columbia. If people in Guam and other U.S. territories are willing to risk their lives to protect democracy, they should be able to take part in it fully. Our American values won’t accept anything less.