After four long days, Florida declared Barack Obama the winner of 29 electoral votes on Saturday bringing him to total of 332 electoral votes while Mitt Romney stands at 206.
According to Florida’s Secretary of State Office, Obama led Romney 50% to 49.1%, which is a 74,000 vote difference, just over the margin that would have required a recount similar to the Bush-Gore race in 2000.
The Associated Press exit polls showed that 9 out of 10 black voters, and 3 out of 5 Hispanic voters favored Obama in Florida. Polls also showed that the President was the choice of two-thirds of voters under the age of 30.
Florida marks the President’s victory in eight out of nine swing states including Ohio, Iowa, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Virginia, Colorado and Nevada, losing only North Carolina.
Florida’s delay in the outcome of the race was largely contributed to some hours-long wait at the polls where some voted after midnight, since extending early voting hours was refused by Governor Rick Scott. President Barack Obama has already addressed the issue of long lines, specifically noting in his acceptance speech that, “We have to fix that.”