2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE SIXTEEN - Election and Registration (§§ 1 — 4255) › Subtitle 6 - Election Code (2011) › Chapter 405 - Voters and Registration (§§ 4061 — 4081) › § 4061 - Voters’ rights and prerogatives

In order to guarantee the free exercise of the parties’ registered status, as well as to achieve the clearest expression of the People’s will, we hereby declare the following rights and prerogatives to be valid and essential:
(1) The administration of Puerto Rico’s electoral entities within a framework of strict impartiality, purity, and justice.
(2) The guarantee of each person’s right to an equal, free, direct, and secret vote.
(3) The voter’s right to straight-ticket, split-ticket, independent, and write-in vote, as defined in this subtitle, to select the persons who shall assume elective public offices, under equal conditions in each case.
(4) The voters’ right to participate in the registration of political parties and the endorsement of independent candidacies, as well as their right to become affiliated to the party of their preference and endorse the candidacies of aspirants to office for said party, as defined in this subtitle.
(5) The right of affiliated voters to participate in the drafting of the bylaws and programme platform of their respective political parties, as well as in the procedures for selecting the candidacies thereof.
(6) The right of every affiliated voter to dissent on issues under the consideration of his/her respective political party that are not programmatic or regulatory in nature.
(7) The right of every affiliated voter to due process of law in every internal disciplinary procedure, as well as in the deliberative and decision-making processes of his/her party.
(8) The right of an affiliated voter who aspires to a candidacy to request the holding of primaries in his/her party, and that the same be held pursuant to the guarantees, rights, and procedures established in this subtitle.
(9) The right of an affiliated voter to receive information regarding the party’s use of its funds.
(10) The right to cast a vote freely and for it to be counted and adjudicated in the way it is cast by the voter, as defined in this subtitle.
(11) The prevalence of the citizen’s voting rights over the rights and prerogatives of all political parties and groups.
(12) The right of citizens, and of every citizen of the United States with the right to vote, to have both Spanish and English used in all regular or special voting procedures conducted pursuant to the provisions of this subtitle, including those related to voter registration, the issuance of voter identification cards, voter information, orientation campaigns, regulations, and the printing of official and sample ballots, among others.
(13) The right of employees to be allowed by their employers, either public or private, to exercise their right to vote without impediment. It shall be the obligation of every employer whose business operations remain active on election day to establish working shifts that allow employees to go to their corresponding polling place during the hours in which it is open for voting, and for employees to be granted the time that is reasonably necessary to exercise their right to vote, considering, among other factors, the distance between their workplace and the polling center.
The Commission shall assume the affirmative function of educating the voter on the aforementioned rights.
To this effect, voters are hereby granted the legal capacity to initiate or carry any legal actions pursuant to the Voter’s Bill of Rights and Prerogatives before the corresponding Court of First Instance, as established in Chapter 403 of this subtitle.
History —June 1, 2011, No. 78, § 6.001.