A supporter waves a Puerto Rican Independence Party flag and holds a campaign poster promoting Citizens' Victory Movement mayoral candidate Manuel Natal during a caravan in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024.

Alejandro Granadillo/AP

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Alejandro Granadillo/AP

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Historic elections will take place in Puerto Rico, regardless of which of the top two gubernatorial candidates wins.

If Jenniffer González of the pro-government New Progressive Party wins Tuesday's election, it would be the first time in the island's history that the party has secured three consecutive terms in office.

If Juan Dalmau, running for Puerto Rico's Independence Party and Citizen Victory Movement, wins, it would be the first victory for a candidate who does not represent either of the two main parties that have dominated the island's politics for decades.

Behind González and Dalmau in polls is Jesús Manuel Ortiz of the People's Democratic Party, which supports the island's territorial status. Also running is Javier Jiménez from Project Dignity, a conservative party founded in 2019.

For decades, the New Progressive Party and the Popular Democratic Party received at least 90% of the total vote, but in 2016 that began to change as newer parties attracted more voters amid economic and political turmoil.

“This was a very big change,” said Jorge Schmidt Nieto, a political analyst and university professor.

Delayed results

Results are not expected late Tuesday as analysts warn it could be a few more days before that happens. In the 2020 election, it took officials four days to release preliminary results.

Puerto Rico's state election commission is still counting more than 220,000 early and absentee ballots it has received, with officials from various political parties indicating the process is moving slowly. The counting of these votes began more than two weeks later than usual.

Jessika Padilla, the commission's deputy president, said in a news conference that about 40% of those votes had been counted as of Monday.

“We will not take this validation process lightly,” she said.

More than 5,000 inmates in Puerto Rico out of about 7,400 total also voted, although it is unclear how many of those votes were counted.

The commission and other officials are also still receiving allegations of election crimes, including from people who said they received early voting confirmations even though they had not submitted such a request.

Power generators have now been sent to more than two dozen polling stations to ensure power amid the chronic power outages that have plagued Puerto Rico in recent years.

A status question and a symbolic vote

On Tuesday, voters will also be asked for the seventh time about Puerto Rico's political status. The non-binding referendum offers three options: statehood, independence and independence with free association, which would address issues such as foreign policy, U.S. citizenship and use of the U.S. dollar.

Regardless of the outcome, a change in status requires approval from the U.S. Congress.

Additionally, Puerto Ricans can support Kamala Harris or Donald Trump in a symbolic vote on Tuesday if they wish. While Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, the island's residents are not allowed to vote in U.S. presidential elections.

Nearly 2 million voters are eligible to vote in Tuesday's election, but it remains to be seen how many people will do so. Voter apathy dominated recent elections.