Status vote, December 13, 1998: none of the above

On December 13, 1998, the winner of the status vote was none of the above. The CEE tally summary compiled at electionspuertorico.org gives that column 787,900 votes (50.3 percent) and statehood 728,157 (46.5 percent). Independence received 39,838 (2.5 percent); free association 4,536 (0.3 percent); the territorial Free Associated State 993 (0.1 percent). The label and the share both fit in the sentence. A diary that says "statehood almost won 1998" without the winner is campaigning.

None of the above was not a joke option. Parties and voters who rejected the ballot's definition of the Free Associated State used it. The 1993 definition had claimed powers Congress had not granted. In 1998 that idea of a strengthened Free Associated State was not offered as a viable column in the same way, and the protest went to "none of the above." The CEE tallies compiled at electionspuertorico.org are the public source. This build did not open the certified PDF.

A vote that a majority uses to reject the menu is still information. It tells you the menu failed. It does not tell Congress which status to approve. It does not repeal the ELA constitution. It does not incorporate the territory. Those who treat 1998 as a near-miss for statehood, or as a disguised victory for the Free Associated State, are adding a story to a box on a ballot. The box said none of the above. It led the tally.

Ninguna de las anteriores, none of the above. That is the column that won. Statehood was second. If you remember only one number from this lesson, remember 50.3 percent and the words none of the above. The fixed finding of this whole site includes that pair. It is printed here in the title so it cannot be kicked to a footnote.

Honesty: December 13, 1998, winner none of the above, near 50.3 percent as ordinarily published from CEE compilations. Statehood near 46.5 percent. Do not raise "none" to a secret Free Associated State, and do not lower it to a spoiled ballot. It was the option that received the most votes. Congress did nothing organic with the result. That, too, is the lesson.

The numbered finding stays with the public law, the rubric, or the tally. This lesson invents no percentage, no count of people, and no date that the sources on this page do not support. The English terms are glossed in the text so that the statute can be read without a manifesto.

Sources: Elecciones en Puerto Rico, resumen de votos del plebiscito de 1998; CRS R44721, antecedentes del estatus político. Freeze 2026-08-22.