Florida decided. But when will it be official?

Nearly 24 hours since the polls closed on Election Night, there is still no declared winner of Florida's 29 electoral votes.

President Barack Obama may not have needed Florida to win re-election, but we may not know if Florida went blue for Obama or red for Republican Mitt Romney until early next week.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Obama held the lead in Florida over Romney by less than 50,000 votes.

State elections officials in Tallahassee are waiting on Florida's 67 county canvassing boards to tally up thousands of remaining provisional and overseas ballots.

All of those have to be accepted by the canvassing boards, and that will take some time.

Thousands of ballots uncounted while a presidential contest hangs in the balance? It sounds a lot like the 2000 recount, but this is 2012, and the nation didn't need to wait on Florida.

Still, a winner must be declared, and as the counting continues, a recount isn't out of the question.

Obama is currently leading Romney by just a little more than one-half of 1 percent of the entire Florida vote, meaning all those uncounted ballots could play a decisive role.

Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner said he is already preparing for the possibility of a recount.

"We're prepared. The supervisors are prepared if there is a close race or a recount," said Detzner. "We've had it happen already this year in some elections."

And it may well come to that. Overseas military ballots tend to favor Republicans, and enough of them could help close the gap between Obama and Romney to within that 0.5 percent, triggering an automatic recount.

On top of that, nine counties are only now adding thousands of absentee ballots to the mix, a delay Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Nancy Whitlock blamed on new voter convenience measures. In that county, and several others, people could drop off their ballots right up until the polls closed on Election Night.

"We used to just have them open until 4 or 5 the day before," said Whitlock. "We didn't even have them open on Election Day."

Under Florida law, the candidate losing in the initial count can decline a recount, and since Florida is no longer key to winning the White House this time, many expect Romney will do exactly that.

State elections officials aren't the ones who will declare a winner in Florida's presidential contest. That's the job of media organizations, and most of them have held off until all the state's ballots are counted.

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Gov. Scott willing to consider election changes

Florida Gov. Rick Scott said he is willing to look at whether changes are needed to make voting go smoother in the Sunshine State.

Scott came under a barrage of criticism after he refused to use his emergency powers to extend the number of days of early voting. The Republican-controlled Florida Legislature last year cut back the number of early voting.

In some counties, including Orange County, voters stood in lines for hours before being able to vote, and in some instances, voters did not cast a ballot until after midnight.

Scott said he will sit down with state elections officials soon to discuss ways to improve the election.

The Republican governor, however, sidestepped questions about whether the win by President Obama means he could be in danger when he seeks re-election in 2014.

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Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.