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OBAMA TO VISIT PUERTO RICO
The US President Obama is all set to visit Puerto Rico in the near future. The 4 million Puerto Ricans who live on the island are citizens but cannot vote in U.S. presidential elections. The 4.2 million Puerto Ricans who live in the United States, however, can vote and, almost unnoticed, they have amassed significant political clout in several states that will be key to Obama’s 2012 hopes.
The 11 states with the most Puerto Ricans total 241 of the 270 electoral votes needed to give Obama a second term. They read like a roll call of battleground states: Florida (847,555 Puerto Ricans); New Jersey (434,092); Pennsylvania (366,082); Connecticut (252,972); Illinois (182,989); Ohio (94,965); and Virginia (73,958). (The other states in the top 11 are New York, Massachusetts, California, and Texas, none of which is considered a battleground.)