Ten days after the 2012 plebiscite, on November 16, 2012, the Electoral Commission reported that 54 percent voted "no" on preserving Puerto Rico's territorial status, the first part of the referendum.[19] On the second part, where voters were asked to choose between statehood, independence and free association, 61.2 percent chose statehood, while 33.3 preferred free association and 5.5 percent voted for independence.[2][20] However, these results have been challenged by observers who note that nearly 500,000 blank ballots were ignored in the reporting by the pro-statehood PNP, contrary to previous Puerto Rico court rulings of Sánchez y Colón v. ELA, 134 DPR 445 (1993); and 134 DPR 503 (1993) and Suárez Cáceres v. CEE, 176 DPR 31 (2009), both of which affirmed that blank ballots should be considered as "none of the above" when that option was not offered on the ballot.[21] Following these judicial precedents the results would reflect that statehood was favored by 44.4% of the ballots cast, while 55.6% were opposed.[22] On December 11, 2012, the pro-statehood 16th Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico passed a concurrent resolution "[t]o request the President and the Congress of the United States to ... begin the process to admit Puerto Rico to the Union as a State."[23]