Vote Count Continues as Officials Blame New Rules
Thursday, November 8, 2012
By: Tom Parkinson

November 8, 2012 | WMFE - The state of Florida has yet to be called in this year's presidential election. Elections officials in nine Florida counties are still counting ballots.

 
Officials say the delays were caused in part by the late casting of ballots in some precincts.
Long lines on Election Day meant some people were still voting into the early morning hours on Wednesday.

Now some officials say the state legislature’s cut back on early voting days and the exceptionally long ballot contributed to the long lines and the subsequent delay in tallying votes.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said some voters had been forced to wait up to six hours to cast their ballots.
Gimenez says he plans to call on Governor Rick Scott to extend early voting and make more sites available for it.

"That's something that we have to rectify and so I'll be asking for a number of things” Gimenez says. “I'll be asking the governor to extend early-voting hours and allow us to use different early-votes sites because right now we have to go into a library or into a city hall.”

State Democrats say Republican Governor Rick Scott's refusal to extend early voting ahead of Election Day was a major factor contributing to the exceedingly long voter lines at many precincts on Tuesday.