Four million. That's how many Americans the US Census Bureau estimates live on five island territories of the United States.
Millions of them are of voting age. Many are veterans or active military. But they cannot vote to elect their commander in chief.
People born in Guam, the Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and Puerto Rico are all Americans. They vote in US congressional elections and presidential primaries. This year, voting rights advocate and lawyer Neil Weare says they were "even heavily courted by both parties ... they went to the [Democratic and Republican] conventions."
But Americans born in these territories can't vote for president. Not unless they move to the mainland.
This is in spite of the fact that they're all US citizens (except for American Samoans, who are only US nationals. More on that in a moment.)
So, why is this — why can't all US citizens vote in general elections? The short answer: Because the Electoral College says so. Bryan Whitener, spokesperson for the Election Assistance Commission, a government agency, quoted the National Archives on the matter:
"No, the Electoral College system does not provide for residents of U.S. Territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands) to vote for President. Unless citizens in U.S. Territories have official residency (domicile) in a U.S. State or the District of Columbia (and vote by absentee ballot or travel to their State to vote), they cannot vote in the presidential election. Note that prior to the adoption of the 23rd Amendment, DC residents could not vote in the Presidential election. The political parties may authorize voters in primary elections in Territories to select delegates to represent them at the political party conventions. But that process does not affect the Electoral College system."
These rules are why pollsters and news outlets have been carefully watching a mass movement of Puerto Ricans to the US mainland in recent years. Once they establish residency in a state, these US citizens can vote in the presidential election — and potentially affect the outcome.
Weare, who heads the We The People advocacy group, doesn't think US citizens should have to relocate in order to vote for their president. His DC-based group is involved in lawsuits to grant voting rights to Americans in territories — to do for them what the 23rd Amendment did for natives of Washington DC in 1961.
"The US has had territories since day one," he says, "but they've always gone on to become states. It's only with the acquisition [of] the overseas territories that we can keep these places but never really have them be part of the political community."
Weare thinks the current voting laws are especially unfair in Guam and American Samoa, given their high military enrollment. In 2014, the Army said American Samoa was the United States' No. 1 military recruitment post.
"Someone who's denied full participation in American democracy," Weare says, "for these people who've served to defend the American Constitution, it's a real insult to them as Americans."
John Oliver made the same point last year on his weekly HBO show, "Last Week Tonight":
Among permanently inhabited US territories, the general election rules are weirdest for American Samoa.
Like other territory residents, American Samoans can vote in US primaries but not for presidents. But they can't do what millions of Puerto Ricans have been doing: relocate to the mainland permanently like one would move from state to state. That's because American Samoans, unlike other territory residents, are not citizens.