It's now early evening on Thursday and Florida is still counting votes.
Asked why it has taken this long to reach a final result, state election officials say they simply weren't prepared.
Officials attribute the delay to a combination of record turnout — seven in 10 Floridians voted — and long lines that had many voters waiting late into the night. Combine that with a shorter early-voting period and a long ballot, and the state was ill-equipped to process the results in a timely manner of what was expected to be a close contest. [...]
According to the Orlando Sentinel, four counties were still counting ballots Thursday: Broward, Duval, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach. Combine that with a 36 hour delay in tallying up absentee ballots and the state is far behind in making a final determination.
The Miami Herald is reporting that the Romney campaign has all but conceded the race, acknowledging that the numbers are unlikely to add up in their favor.
“The numbers in Florida show this was winnable,” Brett Doster, Florida advisor for Romney, said in a statement to The Miami Herald. “We thought based on our polling and range of organization that we had done what we needed to win. Obviously, we didn’t, and for that I and every other operative in Florida has a sick feeling that we left something on the table. I can assure you this won’t happen again.”
As of this time President Obama is maintaining his lead in the state and looks poised to win its 29 electoral votes, bringing his total number of electoral votes to 332.
Personally I believe the margin would not be as slim as it currently stands if early voting had not been restricted and if people were not forced to wait in line until nearly 2 a.m. to cast their votes on the night of the election.
From where I'm sitting, this all appears to be part of the plan to suppress voters. State Republicans threw virtually everything they had at this election, from restricted early voting, to conducting voter roll purges.
Fortunately it didn't work, and Republicans seemingly underestimated the determination of President Obama's supporters. A theme played out in polls and projections made across the country by very serious people who were confident that Democrats would not turn out to vote.