In the 2012 Puerto Rican status referendum, 54.00% of voters indicated "No" to maintaining the current political status. A full 61.11% of voters chose statehood, 33.34% chose free association, and 5.55% chose independence. Because there were almost 500,000 blank ballots, creating confusion as to the voters' true desire, Congress decided to ignore the vote. The 2014 budget bill included $2.5 million in funding for a future vote on Puerto Rico's political status.