By John McPhaul
Voters around Puerto Rico endured waits of up to three hours and more, as well as faulty ballot counting machines to vote Tuesday in one of the most consequential elections in the island’s history.
At Salvador Brau School in Carolina, where Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González Colón cast her vote in the morning, an informal poll yielded a preference for the New Progressive Party (NPP) candidate for governor, with seven voters going for González Colón and one expressing support for Juan Dalmau Ramírez, the candidate of the “Alliance” between the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) and the Citizen Victory Movement (MVC).
At Juan José Osuna Elementary School, where San Juan Mayor Miguel Romero Lugo voted, 33-year-old Jesús Gómez said he was voting for González Colón because he wanted to “maintain Puerto Rico’s ties to the U.S. union.”
Adriana Pérez, 29, on the other hand, said she would vote for Dalmau.
After voting, Romero Lugo said he didn’t know if the NPP would sweep the elections but was sure it would take the most important races.
“We will win the governorship, the mayorship of San Juan, the resident commissioner,” the incumbent mayor said.
At the Colegio Universitario de San Juan, Jesús Pallalleti said in no uncertain terms that he was voting for the PIP-MVC Alliance.
“I used to vote ‘popular’ [for the Popular Democratic Party], but all the politicians are garbage,” he said.
Equally sure of his vote was César Irrizarry, 61.
“All of my family have always voted statehood, and it would be something outside that line not to vote for statehood,” he said. “My uncle is a veteran and we are for the U.S. union.”
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