After a four-day count with
neck-and-neck tallies, President Barack Obama of the United Stated was
declared the winner of Florida’s 29 electoral votes Saturday, earning 50
per cent to Mitt Romney’s 49.1 per cent, according to the Secretary of
State’s office.
The victory puts the president – who had
clinched re-election Tuesday night even without Florida – at a final
332 electoral votes to Romney’s 206. It also marks his sweep of eight of
the nine swing states, with North Carolina his only battleground loss.
Obama’s margin of victory is over the half-per cent mark that would trigger a computer recount unless Romney had waived it.
A handful of overseas and military
ballots, which have a November 16 deadline, are believed to remain
outstanding, but under Florida law, recounts are based on Saturday’s
results.
Florida’s drawn-out count this week
rekindled for many memories of the state’s election night woes from
2000, when a recount was ordered amid complaints of hanging chads on
punch-card ballots.
Complications this year, though, arose largely because long lines pushed voting late into the night Tuesday.
In Miami-Dade, for instance, so many
people were in line at 7 p.m. in certain precincts that some didn’t vote
until after midnight. The headache has prompted many in the Sunshine
State to criticize Governor Rick Scott for refusing to extend early
voting hours.