The absentee ballot count is mercifully over. Miami-Dade elections workers counted a final batch of 500 absentees Thursday morning, after pulling an all-nighter. “We’re done,” said elections department spokeswoman Christina White. The last-minute surge of some 54,000 absentees cast up until the closing of the polls on Election Day caused an extraordinary delay in tabulating the final results for Miami-Dade’s vote. Hanging in the balance: the official outcome of the presidential race between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, along with a handful of local elections.
Supervisor of Elections Penelope Townsley is expected to update reporters Thursday afternoon on the status of the absentee tabulation. She said the county’s total election results — including provisional ballots that still must be counted — will be completed by Friday.
Florida remains the only state in the union not to declare its presidential winner, and several tight local elections hang in the balance.
The fallout has left Florida the final much-mocked but blank spot on the long-decided Electoral College map.
Full Article: Absentee-ballot count finished by Miami-Dade; total results… | www.palmbeachpost.com.