[5][6] Although García Padilla questioned the validity of the results, he stated that he planned to go forward with what President Barack Obama had suggested, and convene a constituent assembly to resolve the status issue.

Governor Fortuño, Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi, and Jorge Santini, the Mayor of San Juan, all supported holding a status referendum.

"[17] He said that Puerto Ricans should take advantage of "every chance to overcome the colonial status" and criticized Alejandro García Padilla, President of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) for not supporting the process.

Former Governor of Puerto Rico Pedro Rosselló (from the PNP) said that the choices in the ballot were confusing and might cause "an uncertainty that, in the end, will bring us more of the same: the status quo, continued.

"[20] Another member of the PPD, Senator Eduardo Bhatia, said that the status referendum was "a trick" and that the results would not have any value in Washington because it was an "illegitimate and badly designed ballot question.

The December 2005 Task Force made the following recommendations: President George H. W. Bush issued a memorandum on November 30, 1992, to heads of executive departments and agencies, establishing the current administrative relationship between the federal government and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

On March 16, 2011, the President's Task Force on Political Status issued a third report[24] which concluded that "(u)nder the Commonwealth option, Puerto Rico would remain, as it is today, subject to the Territory Clause of the U.S.

Regardless of how voters answered that question, they were asked secondly, to express their preference among the three non-territorial alternatives:[5][25] The ballot descriptions for the second part of the question were:[1] Critics said that voters who favor a developed version of the current status of Puerto Rico (a commonwealth which is part of the United States with internal self-government) had no alternatives on the ballot.

[26] Because there were almost 500,000 blank ballots, creating confusion as to the voters' true desire, it provided Congress an opportunity to ignore the vote, which it did.

[30] Governor-elect Alejandro García Padilla, who had been critical of the process, said that the consult was "unfair" and that it didn't offer clear results.

The analyst Néstor Duprey said that, although the premise that statehood won could be mathematically correct, the "blank ballots can't be ignored because they are the product of a political intention" —referring to the PPD's campaign for voters to leave the second question unanswered.

[6] On November 8, 2012, the Washington, D.C. newspaper, The Hill, suggested that Congress will likely ignore the results of the referendum due to the circumstances behind the votes.

[32] A few days after the referendum, Governor-elect Alejandro García Padilla wrote a letter to President Obama, asking him to reject the results because of their ambiguity.

[33] On November 13, 2012, both the Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi and the current Governor Luis Fortuño wrote separate letters to President Obama urging him to begin legislation in favor of resolving the political status of Puerto Rico, in light of the results of the referendum.

[42] Hundreds of people participated in the pro-statehood marches which took place in San Juan, Orlando, and Washington DC on the 96th anniversary of the Jones Act, the 1917 law which gave Puerto Ricans U.S.

[43][44] On April 10, 2013, it was announced that the White House would seek $2.5 million to hold another referendum as part of Obama's 2014 budget proposal (the money would fund both voter education and the plebiscite itself).

[47][48] On June 17, 2013, Pierluisi said during a testimony before the U.N. Special Committee on Decolonization that if the Obama administration refuses to act he will raise his case for Puerto Rican self-determination before the United Nations or any other appropriate international forum.

[52] It was reported on July 10, 2013, that Pierluisi had secured the support of at least 87 members of Congress across partisan lines for the Puerto Rico Status Resolution Act.

[54] On August 1, 2013, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on Puerto Rico's status as a direct result of the 2012 plebiscite vote and invited Governor Alejandro García Padilla, Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi, and pro-independence supporter Rubén Berríos to give testimony and answer questions from the committee.

[56][57] The Puerto Rican status referendum, 2017 was held on June 11, 2017, with 97% voting for statehood but amid historically low turnout.