Carrillo stresses that education and awareness initiatives, such as instructing people on the differences between primaries and caucuses, and more party outreach can help Puerto Rico advocate for itself more in national affairs. But his biggest concern is that apathy often stems from the simple fact that, while Puerto Ricans can vote in the primaries, they cannot vote for president. “I served in the Army,” Carrillo says. “But I don’t get to vote for the commander-in-chief. That’s not right.”

The ubiquitous TV ads and yard signs of campaign season on the mainland are absent through most of Puerto Rico. Most of the information people receive about the races comes from sparse radio coverage. The lack of media penetration combined with the factors Carrillo mentioned contribute to a climate in which many Puerto Ricans are not even sure that they can participate in the primary elections. “I wasn’t really aware that we could vote this weekend,” says Leandra Davila, an advertising representative in San Juan. “What we’ve been told always is that we can’t vote. We don’t have a right for voting. So with that, we thought that we could not even vote in the primaries.”

Even working in advertising, Davila has not come across national political advertisements or endorsements often. “We do have some influencers that are political analysts and they do talk about the primaries, but not many people follow them because they are mostly on blogs,” Davila says. The 24-hour news and debate cycle of the campaign in the mainland is largely substituted by a handful of in-person candidate visits and hyperlocal rallies and events by the parties and affiliates.

Newly armed with the info that she can vote in the primary elections, Davila plans on availing herself of the tool. “We can have a voice, since we’re a U.S. territory. We can have our participation in politics,” she stresses. Her enthusiasm underscores Carrillo’s point that awareness and unclarity about voting status are key barriers to turnout.

For those people who are planning on voting, it appears that party identification takes a backseat to the questions surrounding Puerto Rico’s status and economic future. Even Carrillo, an avowed surrogate of Hillary Clinton, emphasizes that the Puerto Rican primaries in the aggregate are unique in that many Puerto Ricans are making choices to stack the deck in the territory’s interest as opposed to deciding on party lines. “If we split up in both parties and we engage and have a vote inside, whoever wins the election, we can make sure Puerto Rico is included in the agenda and not forgotten,” Carrillo says. “We need to make sure the next president presents a resolution for Puerto Rico’s status that is final, is clear, and is fair.”

The implications of that status reverberate throughout policy decisions on the island. After multiple defaults and a credit-rating downgrade to junk levels, the statehood movement has gained traction as an economic respite. Statehood would allow Puerto Rico the bankruptcy protections that states are afforded and from which Puerto Rico is currently barred. Statehood would have the drawbacks of more limited local decision making and an exposure of citizens––who already have incredibly high local taxes––to federal taxes. Those on the commonwealth side are pushing for a federal decision to simply allow Puerto Rico bankruptcy protections without statehood.