General elections were held in

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. After a count by the State Commission of Elections, the winner was inaugurated to a four-year term as

Governor of Puerto Rico The governor of Puerto Rico ( es, gobernador de Puerto Rico) is the head of government of the Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and commander-in-chief of the Puerto Rico National Guard. The governor has a duty ...

on January 2, 2005. The post of

and the entire House of Representatives and the entire

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

, as well as the Mayors of the

municipalities of Puerto Rico The municipalities of Puerto Rico (Spanish: ''municipios de Puerto Rico'') are the second-level administrative divisions in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. There are 78 such administrative divisions covering all 78 incorporated towns and cities ...

, and the Resident Commissioner were also elected for four-year terms. For the first time in

Puerto Rican history The history of Puerto Rico began with the settlement of the Ortoiroid people between 430 BC and AD 1000. At the time of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1493, the dominant indigenous culture was that of the Taínos. The Taín ...

, citizens unable to mobilize to voting colleges for medical reasons, but capable of practicing their right to vote, were visited in their own homes and hospitals so that they could exercise their vote.

Candidates for Governor

Aníbal Acevedo Vilá Aníbal Salvador Acevedo Vilá (born 13 February 1962) is a Puerto Rican politician and lawyer. He served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 2005 to 2009. He is a Harvard University alumnus (LL.M. 1987) and a graduate of the University of Puer ...

for the Popular Democratic Party * Pedro Rosselló for the New Progressive Party *

Ruben Berrios Reuben or Reuven is a Biblical male first name from Hebrew רְאוּבֵן (Re'uven), meaning "behold, a son". In the Bible, Reuben was the firstborn son of Jacob. Variants include Rúben in European Portuguese; Rubens in Brazilian Portugue ...

for the Puerto Rican Independence Party

Candidates for Resident Commissioner

Edwin Irizarry Mora Edwin Irizarry Mora (born March 8, 1961 in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico) is an economist, professor and pro-independence leader in Puerto Rico. Life He was the Puerto Rican Independence Party candidate for governor of the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto ...

for the Puerto Rican Independence Party * Luis Fortuño for the New Progressive Party * Roberto Prats for the Popular Democratic Party

Results

Results were announced by the State Commission of Elections (CEE-PUR) on November 2–3, 2004 after the voting colleges closed on November 2 at 3:00 p.m. AST. On November 3, after 1,970,759 votes (98.3% of the total votes) were computed,

(PPD) was certified preliminarily as winning for

. On the other hand, Luis Fortuño (PNP) was certified as Resident Commissioner, while the

and the House of Representatives were also dominated by the New Progressive Party. The preliminary certification was signed by

Gerardo Cruz Gerardo may refer to: People Given name Gerardo is the Spanish, Portuguese and Italian form of the male given name Gerard. * Gerardo Amarilla (born 1969), Uruguayan politician * Gerardo Bonilla (born 1975), Puerto Rican-born professional race ...

, electoral commissioner of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD),

Brunilda Ortiz Brunhild, also known as Brunhilda or Brynhild ( non, Brynhildr , gmh, Brünhilt, german: Brünhild , label=Modern German or ), is a female character from Germanic heroic legend. She may have her origins in the Visigothic princess Brunhilda o ...

, alternate electoral commissioner of the New Progressive Party (PNP), and

Andrés Miranda Rosa Andres or Andrés may refer to: *Andres, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Will County, Illinois, US *Andres, Pas-de-Calais, a commune in Pas-de-Calais, France *Andres (name) *Hurricane Andres * "Andres" (song), a 1994 song by L7 See also ...

, alternate electoral commissioner of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP). The alternate commissioners were authorized by the electoral commissioners in property of their party,

Thomas Rivera Schatz Thomas Rivera Schatz (born June 10, 1966) is a Puerto Rican politician, legal advisor, attorney, and former prosecutor, who was the fourteenth and sixteenth President of the Senate of Puerto Rico. He is affiliated with New Progressive Party of ...

(PNP) and Juan Dalmau (PIP).

Recount and shared government

Acevedo Vilá's margin of victory over Pedro Rosselló was of 3,566 (0.2%) votes, whereas Luis Fortuño had 11,137 (0.49%) votes of advantage against Roberto Prats for Resident Commissioner. Due to the small margin of victory being, the Puerto Rican electoral laws state that a recount must be performed, and that once this recount is finished, the official winner will be certified by the CEE-PUR. The recount started on Monday, November 9 as established by law, and had to finish by December 31 or earlier. During the period, Rosselló filed a civil lawsuit against Acevedo Vilá himself over a dispute of certain ballots that were cast during the elections. This led to a protracted controversy involving appeals to the United States federal courts and the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico. The ballots in question were cast by marking the Puerto Rican Independence Party or New Progressive Party (i.e. marking a cross under the emblem of one of these parties) in addition to placing individual candidate marks (crosses) in favor of Acevedo Vilá as the candidate for governor of the Popular Democratic Party and Roberto Prats, the Popular Democratic Party's candidate for Resident Commissioner. The mark indicating the selection of a political party selects that party's slate of candidates by default, but the voter can also select individual candidates from other parties to replace candidates from the default slate. The controversy reached the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, which ruled 4–3 that the ballots in question were valid. In its initial opinion, the Supreme Court majority interpreted the challenged ballots as indicating that voters were voting for the PIP as a party for the purposes of stating party affiliation (and for the PIP's default slate) but had decided to move their votes to individual candidates from other party's slates. This type of vote, described as a "mixed vote", is permitted in Rule 50 of the State Election Commission's rules, based on the Commonwealth's Electoral Law as amended in 2004, Title 2, Section 2.001, Subsection 3. The practice is therefore considered legal and has been published in the official voter's instructions by the State Election Commission for quite some time. This voting option was also allowed and seen in the 1996 and 2000 elections, and had never been contested before, either at the Legislature or by the NPP's Electoral Commissioner. The individual votes for candidates not from the voter's selected party are then deducted from the votes given to the default candidates of the voter's party. The end result is a single vote per candidate. At the same time, Rosselló challenged the ballots on the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico where District Judge Daniel Domínguez ordered the Puerto Rico Election Commission to count the disputed votes but to not adjudicate them to any candidate until he reached a decision on the merits of the case. Acevedo Vilá and his team challenged this ruling and the case moved up to the

United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (in case citations, 1st Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * District of Maine * District of Massachusetts * ...

, where three judges ruled the question of whether or not the ballots were properly cast was not a federal constitutional issue in the case '' Rosselló-González v. Calderón-Serra'' and therefore should be decided by the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico at the Commonwealth level. The Supreme Court affirmed its prior 4–3 decision. On December 28, 2004, the recount ended and Acevedo Vilá was certified as winner and therefore Governor elected. Once the official winners were announced, they were inaugurated to four-year terms on January 2, 2005.

PIP loses its franchise

On a different note, the Puerto Rican Independence Party was unable to reach 3% of the total votes on the preliminary results, putting in risk their franchise as a principal political party by Puerto Rican electoral laws. Because of this, the party may not receive funds from the government of Puerto Rico (consisting of $5 million USD) nor have a separate column in ballot papers on the following elections. However, Maria de Lourdes Santiago became the first woman from that party to be elected senator in the history of Puerto Rico.

Governor

Resident Commissioner

Senate

, - ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;vertical-align:top;" colspan=2 , Parties ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , District
Votes ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , District
% ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , District
Seats ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , At Large
Votes ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , At Large
% ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , At Large
Seats ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Total , - , style="background-color:blue" , , style="text-align:left;" , New Progressive Party (''Partido Nuevo Progresista'') , style="text-align:right;" , 1,845,204 , style="text-align:right;" , 48.6 , style="text-align:right;" , 11 , style="text-align:right;" , 845,228 , style="text-align:right;" , 44.3 , style="text-align:right;" , 6 , style="text-align:right;" , 17 , - , style="background-color:red" , , style="text-align:left;" , Popular Democratic Party (''Partido Popular Democrático'') , style="text-align:right;" , 1,768,374 , style="text-align:right;" , 46.6 , style="text-align:right;" , 5 , style="text-align:right;" , 767,626 , style="text-align:right;" , 40.3 , style="text-align:right;" , 4 , style="text-align:right;" , 9 , - , style="background-color:green;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Puerto Rican Independence Party (''Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño'') , style="text-align:right;" , 160,632 , style="text-align:right;" , 4.2 , style="text-align:right;" , 0 , style="text-align:right;" , 178,541 , style="text-align:right;" , 9.4 , style="text-align:right;" , 1 , style="text-align:right;" , 1 , - , , , style="text-align:left;" , Independent Movement of the Eastern Region (''Movimiento Independiente Region Este'') , style="text-align:right;" , 2,936 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.1 , style="text-align:right;" , 0 , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , - , style="background-color:white" , , style="text-align:left;" , Independent , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , 97,673 , style="text-align:right;" , 5.1 , style="text-align:right;" , 0 , style="text-align:right;" , - , - , style="background-color:white" , , style="text-align:left;" , Others , style="text-align:right;" , 826 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.0 , style="text-align:right;" , 0 , style="text-align:right;" , 297 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.0 , style="text-align:right;" , 0 , style="text-align:right;" , - , - , style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan=2, Total (turnout 81.7 %) , style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9" , 3,777,972 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9" , 100.0 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9" , 16 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9" , 1,889,365 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9" , 100.0 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9" , 11 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9" , 27 , - , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Blank and Null Votes , style="text-align:right;" , 17,245 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.4 , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , 17,245 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.7 , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , - , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Total votes cast , style="text-align:right;" , 3,795,217 , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , 1,906,610 , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , - , colspan=8 style="text-align:left;" , Source:
Elections Puerto Rico
, -

House of Representatives

References

# "2004 General Elections"
State Commission of Elections of Puerto Rico
San Juan, Puerto Rico. November 3, 2004.
CEE preliminarily certifies Acevedo Vilá and Fortuño
San Juan, Puerto Rico: ''El Nuevo Día''. November 3, 2004.

External links

State Commission of Elections of Puerto Rico
- official site (in Spanish) {{Puerto Rican elections

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

Puerto Rico

General election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...