## Facts

- U.S. citizen plaintiffs resided in Puerto Rico and alleged they were unlawfully denied the ability to vote in U.S. presidential elections.
- Several plaintiffs previously lived in a U.S. state and had voted for President there before moving to Puerto Rico.
- Plaintiffs challenged the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), which permits certain U.S. citizens residing outside the United States to vote absentee in federal elections in their last state of residence.
- Plaintiffs alleged UOCAVA unconstitutionally discriminated by not extending similar absentee voting rights to U.S. citizens who moved from a state to Puerto Rico.
- Plaintiffs also relied on Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and related international instruments as supporting a right to vote.
- The district court dismissed the complaint for failure to state a claim; plaintiffs appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether U.S. citizens residing in Puerto Rico have a constitutional right to vote in presidential elections.
2. Whether UOCAVA is unconstitutional for treating citizens residing abroad differently from citizens residing in Puerto Rico with respect to absentee voting in federal elections.
3. Whether the ICCPR or other international instruments create enforceable rights requiring that Puerto Rico residents be allowed to vote for President.

## Decision

- The First Circuit summarily affirmed the dismissal for failure to state a claim.
- The court held that residents of Puerto Rico have no constitutional right to participate in presidential elections because Article II assigns the appointment of presidential electors to states, and Puerto Rico is not a state.
- The court rejected the constitutional challenge to UOCAVA, concluding that the alleged differential treatment did not violate due process or equal protection.
- The court rejected the international-law-based claims, finding no enforceable basis to alter the constitutional structure governing presidential elections.

## Legal Principles

- Article II provides that presidential electors are appointed by states; participation in presidential elections follows from state-based elector appointment rather than from a freestanding individual constitutional right of national citizenship.
- U.S. territories that are not states have no Article II entitlement to appoint presidential electors; absent statehood or constitutional change, territorial residents lack a constitutional right to vote for President.
- A statutory scheme addressing absentee voting for citizens residing abroad does not become unconstitutional merely because territorial residents cannot vote for President due to the constitutional allocation of electoral power to states.
- The ICCPR does not create judicially enforceable domestic voting rights that override or modify the Constitution’s allocation of presidential elector selection.

## Conclusion

The First Circuit affirmed dismissal of Puerto Rico residents’ suit seeking presidential voting rights, holding that Article II limits presidential elector appointment to states, that UOCAVA’s absentee-voting provisions do not violate equal protection or due process on the asserted theory, and that international instruments like the ICCPR do not supply enforceable grounds to restructure presidential elections.


Igartua de la Rosa v. United States, 32 F.3d 8 (1st Cir. 1994)