Puerto Rico has been an unincorporated territory of the United States since the conclusion of the Spanish–American War in 1898, and its residents were granted U.S. citizenship in 1917.

In addition, due to its political status, the United States has full authority over Puerto Rico's foreign policy.

[6] The amendments then passed in the Senate and the bill was signed into law by Governor Ricardo Rosselló (PNP) on February 3, 2017.

[7] While initially the referendum would only have the options of statehood and independence/free association, a letter from the Trump administration recommended to add the Commonwealth, the current status, in the plebiscite.

Amendments to the plebiscite bill were adopted making ballot wording changes requested by the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as adding a "current territorial status" option.

[3] Previous plebiscites have discussed the margins of the win to result in a mandate with some arguing for a 50%+1 or sometimes a higher percentage to initiate congressional action on the will of Puerto Rico.

[14] Because there were almost 500,000 blank ballots in the 2012 referendum, creating confusion as to the voters' true desire, Congress decided to ignore the vote.

[17] The White House Task Force on Puerto Rico offers the following specifics: Free Association is a type of independence.

[1] At approximately the same time as the referendum, Puerto Rico's legislators were expected to vote on a bill that would allow the Governor to draft a state constitution and hold elections to choose senators and representatives to the federal Congress.

Similarly, under the option for maintaining the status quo, the ballot also asserted that Puerto Rico is subject to the plenary powers of the United States Congress, a notion also historically rejected by the PPD.