An American orbiting in outer space can vote, but four million citizens and nationals living on U.S. soil have been left behind. While NASA astronaut Kate Rubins cast her ballot last month from the International Space Station, around 350 kilometres above planet Earth, those living in the five American island territories in Guam, the Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and Puerto Rico will not be able to vote to elect their next president. Territorial residents have some of the highest military enlistment rates, yet many have no say when it comes to deciding their next commander-in-chief.
In a 115-year-old Supreme Court case known as Downes v. Bidwell, a 5-4 decision held that the Constitution should not apply more broadly to the “possession” territories because it would be impossible to administer government and justice “according to Anglo-Saxon principles” in places that were “inhabited by alien races differing from us in religion, customs, laws, methods of taxation and modes of thought.”
Full Article: Americans can vote from space, so why not from U.S. island territories? – World – CBC News.