Florida’s 29 electoral votes went to President Barack Obama Saturday, four days after the election was called in his favor.
NBC News called the state, where voters endured through long lines to get to the polls and workers had not completed the vote count until Friday afternoon. The added electoral votes increased Obama’s margin of victory, netting him a total of 332 electoral votes to Mitt Romney’s 206.
Florida, which infamously held up the 2000 election between Vice President Al Gore and President George W. Bush, again became the focus of national scorn after the long delay in delivering results.
Republican Governor Rick Scott shortened the number of early voting days as well as early voting hours in the lead-up to Nov. 6. A limited number of polling sites authorized to conduct early voting also added to the problem, the Tampa Bay Times reported. A record number of 8.4 million Floridians turned up to vote in the election, the Times reported.
President Obama alluded to the long lines and voting problems in Florida and elsewhere during his acceptance speech Tuesday, thanking supporters for standing in long lines to cast their ballots before saying, “by the way, we have to fix that.” For his part, Scott defended Secretary of State Ken Detzner and said the delay in counting the vote was a sign that the process was “diligent and thorough”.
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