President Barack Obama has won re-election. But it may be a while before it's known whether he or GOP challenger Mitt Romney won Florida.
As the election wound down Tuesday night, it became evident that Florida was too close to call. There were 200,000 ballots still be counted, and Obama's lead was less than that - about 50,000 votes.
Midnight struck, and Romney delivered his concession speech. Then, Obama gave his victory speech. But Florida was still counting.
Wednesday, election officials in nine counties began the process of counting provisional and overseas ballots. Obama's lead as of 4 p.m. Wedneday was .58 percent, just outside the .5 percent difference that would trigger a recount.
Provisional and and overseas numbers may not be finalized until late this week or early next week.
State election officials say they don't "call" elections or color a state red or blue. That's done by media organizations, and most are holding off until a final tally is complete.
Long lines at the polls and last-minute absentee ballots prevented votes from being counted Tuesday in some locations. Miami-Dade elections officials said 18,000 uncounted absentee votes would be tallied Wednesday; Pinellas officials said they had 9,000 to count the day after the election.
Officials said the votes were absentee ballots that had been dropped off shortly before polls closed Tuesday evening, and elections workers still needed to verify the signatures and run the ballots through the voting machines.
The razor-thin margin was expected after months of candidate visits, campaign bitterness and some $130 million spent on TV ads. In August, the GOP even held its political convention in Tampa, in part to win votes in Florida.
Florida, with its diversity, wealth and political cache was long seen as a toss-up. Obama won Florida in 2008 by 205,000 votes.
In other Florida races, voters chose Sen. Bill Nelson over GOP Rep. Connie Mack and picked seats for Congress; the Legislature; whether to retain three state Supreme Court justices; and voters decided on 11 state constitutional amendments.
Turnout appeared to be heavy, with long lines reported in many places, even though more than 4.5 million people out of nearly 12 million registered voters cast ballots early. There were reports of sporadic, but mostly minor problems at the polls Tuesday. Robocalls from the Pinellas County office mistakenly told voters the election was Wednesday. The main Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections office lost power for about 45 minutes Tuesday evening.