By Justin Sink, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Nov. 7, 2012

Puerto Rico for the first time Tuesday voted to seek statehood within the United States, passing a nonbinding resolution asking the U.S. Congress to consider changing the status of the Caribbean island.

According to results from The Associated Press, 54 percent of Puerto Ricans said they wanted to change their territorial relationship with the United States while 46 percent preferred the current association with the American government, with 96 percent of precincts reporting.

Voters were also asked to choose how that change would be implemented: More than 6 in 10 favored statehood, while a third backed "sovereign free association," a path that would grant Puerto Rico more autonomy. Full independence attracted 5 percent of the vote [.....]

Also see:

Puerto Rico wants to become the 51st state of the US
BBC News, Nov. 7, 2012
[...]The measure will require approval from the US Congress, but President Barack Obama has said he will respect the vote [...]

And:

Why does Puerto Rico want statehood, anyway?
By Olga Khazan, WorldViews blog @ washingtonpost.com, Nov. 7, 2012