@neoteotihuacan @blogdiva please educate yourself. These referendums are and have always been a sham in some way or another. They have all had some caveat to them, usually designed to split the vote for other alternatives, and it's faced with a lot of FUD that's communicated about the loss of our status.
In this election, there were many many ballots that were literally "vandalized" in a protest against the choices presented.
Puerto Rican politics are complicated, and you can't look at any of the statehood vs colony vs independence discourse without understanding the very specific history of the violence, colonialism, abuse, and fear that we have been subjected to. Even if it did not involve PNP shenanigans (which it always does), you're talking about a referendum done with a gun to our heads (the threat of things going to EXTREME SHIT if the US just straight up leaves us out to dry)