team challenged this ruling and the case moved up to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, where three judges ruled the question of whether or not the ballots were properly cast was not a federal constitutional issue in the case Rosselló-González v. Calderón-Serra and therefore should be decided by the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico at the Commonwealth level. The Supreme Court affirmed its prior 4–3 decision. On December 28, 2004, the recount ended and Acevedo Vilá was certified as winner and therefore Governor elected. Once the official winners were announced, they were inaugurated to four-year terms on January 2, 2005. PIP loses its franchise On a different note, the Puerto Rican Independence Party was unable to reach 3% of the total votes on the preliminary results, putting in risk their franchise as a principal political party by Puerto Rican electoral laws. Because of this, the party may not receive funds from the government of Puerto Rico (consisting of $5 million USD) nor have a separate column in ballot papers on the following elections. However, Maria de Lourdes Santiago became the first woman from that party to be elected senator in the history of Puerto Rico. Governor Resident Commissioner Senate |- ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;vertical-align:top;" colspan=2 |Parties ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" |DistrictVotes ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" |District% ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" |DistrictSeats ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" |At LargeVotes ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" |At Large% ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" |At LargeSeats ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" |Total |- | style="background-color:blue" | | style="text-align:left;" |New Progressive Party (Partido Nuevo Progresista) | style="text-align:right;" |1,845,204 | style="text-align:right;" |48.6 | style="text-align:right;" |11 | style="text-align:right;" |845,228 | style="text-align:right;" |44.3 | style="text-align:right;" |6 | style="text-align:right;" |17 |- | style="background-color:red" | | style="text-align:left;" |Popular Democratic Party (Partido Popular Democrático) | style="text-align:right;" |1,768,374 | style="text-align:right;" |46.6 | style="text-align:right;" |5 | style="text-align:right;" |767,626 | style="text-align:right;" |40.3 | style="text-align:right;" |4 | style="text-align:right;" |9 |- | style="background-color:green;" | | style="text-align:left;" |Puerto Rican Independence Party (Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño) | style="text-align:right;" |160,632 | style="text-align:right;" |4.2 | style="text-align:right;" |0 | style="text-align:right;" |178,541 | style="text-align:right;" |9.4 | style="text-align:right;" |1 | style="text-align:right;" |1 |- || | style="text-align:left;" | Independent Movement of the Eastern Region (Movimiento Independiente Region Este) | style="text-align:right;" |2,936 | style="text-align:right;" |0.1 | style="text-align:right;" |0 | style="text-align:right;" |- | style="text-align:right;" |- | style="text-align:right;" |- | style="text-align:right;" |- |- | style="background-color:white" | | style="text-align:left;" | Independent | style="text-align:right;" |- | style="text-align:right;" |- | style="text-align:right;" |- | style="text-align:right;" |97,673 | style="text-align:right;" |5.1 | style="text-align:right;" |0 | style="text-align:right;" |- |- |