Donald Trump\u2019s Madison Square Garden rally was meant to be a triumphant return to the city that made his name. Instead, the event has reheated simmering tensions on the island territory of Puerto Rico, where locals say they feel like second-class citizens, days out from a historic US election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Comments from a comedian at Trump\u2019s rally<\/a> this week, describing Puerto Rico as a \u201cfloating island of garbage\u201d, might have fired up local resentment against the Republican candidate<\/a>, but those who live there will be unable to show their anger through the ballot box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Residents of Puerto Rico<\/a> are among the more than 3 million Americans whose votes won\u2019t count, when the country elects its president next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most residents of the US territories \u2013 Puerto Rico, Guam<\/a>, American Samoa, the US Virgin Islands and the Northern Marianas \u2013 are citizens and pay federal taxes. Many have family on the mainland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the territories have no votes in the electoral college that ultimately decides the president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey\u2019re just basically captive to whatever Congress and the president want to do to them,\u201d says Luis Fuentes-Rohwer, a law professor at Indiana University. \u201cTo be a citizen means to be a member of the political community. Not in the US.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s one of the few things uniting the disparate territories, which range from Puerto Rico, home to 3 million citizens in the Caribbean, to American Samoa, closer to Australia than America with a population of just 50,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Residents have no say over Washington\u2019s decisions that control their everyday lives, according to Karina Claudio Betancourt, a student in Puerto Rico<\/a>\u2019s capital city, San Juan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cElections impact us because the president decides what to do or not to do with Puerto Rico right now,\u201d they say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Betancourt points to Donald Trump\u2019s response to Hurricane Maria<\/a>, which devastated the island, and the Obama administration\u2019s imposition of a board controlling government funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBasic transportation and health services and things that impact us day-to-day are decided by the Congress of the United States and by this fiscal oversight board, but we don\u2019t get to vote for any of that,\u201d they say. \u201cPeople are fed up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Guam<\/a> resident Phillip Gilbert says it\u2019s unfair to leave territory voters disfranchised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI do feel robbed not being able to vote,\u201d he says. \u201cAs a service member, I especially feel that this is not fair after serving my country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 47-year-old could register as a Washington State resident and vote absentee while stationed in Guam with the navy, but Gilbert lost the right to vote for president once he had retired in the territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Charles Ala\u2019ilima is on the board of Right to Democracy, one of a growing number of organisations working to get territory residents \u2013 98% of whom are people of colour \u2013 more influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is this othering going on of people of colour, people of the territories, right?\u201d he says. \u201cUnless [you] actually have citizenship and the right to vote, you are always going to be considered other, not a full part of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While his home of American Samoa may be too small to become a state on its own, representation could just start with Congress asking the population whether they want to be a permanent part of the US, Ala\u2019ilima says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf they put that in front of the people, I expect 99% would say we\u2019d be a permanent part of the United States \u2026 [and] the United States then has to make adjustments in their laws to allow the territory to become a full fledged part of the political process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But territories could also be given a say in the presidency by amending the constitution to grant them electoral college votes, as happened for Washington DC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many Puerto Ricans who have moved to the mainland will be able to make their voices heard on 5 November, with large communities in Pennsylvania and Florida being targted by both campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those who remain in the territory meanwhile, have made numerous efforts to become a state in their own right. The island has more people than the five smallest states combined and statehood is supported<\/a> by many, but the final decision lies with Congress \u2013 and recent efforts have stalled<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those delays and persistent disfranchisement means some Puerto Ricans are eager to leave the US orbit altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Tuesday, alongside elections for local politicians and an informal straw poll for their favoured presidential candidate, they will vote in their seventh non-binding referendum on status<\/a> \u2013 this time putting full and partial independence up against statehood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s not fair that that all of these decisions are being made as if we were savages, as if we were people who can\u2019t have self determination,\u201d Betancourt says. \u201cI don\u2019t want to vote for the United States \u2013 I want to vote for the president of Puerto Rico.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n