Miami-Dade Absentee Ballot Count Complete, 41 Hours After Polls Closed (PHOTOS)

Absentee Ballot Count FINALLY Finished

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Forty-one hours after polls closed, the absentee ballot count is finally over in Miami-Dade county.

Officials finished counting the ballots Thursday at noon, all but wrapping up an embarrassing election period that featured eight-hour early voting lines, six-hour Election Day lines, long delays, and Florida's utter irrelevance Tuesday night.

In fact, with Miami-Dade several other beleaguered counties still tabulating results, Florida has yet to be called for Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, the last undecided state in the union (again).

Even after the national race was called for the president, heroic Miami voters like Alfie Fernandez, who was on her third attempt to vote because of long lines, were still waiting to cast ballots.

"I felt my vote was important," she told the Miami Herald. "We have a history of messing up votes and I didn't want to leave anything to chance."

The county's total election results, which will include still-uncounted provisional ballots, will be reportedly be completed by Friday. Several local races remain close, though Obama was leading the county 62-38.

Local officials blamed high volume for the delays as well as the time it took to check each page of the longest ballot in state history, which ballooned to at least 10 pages across the county when the GOP-led Florida legislature piled on 11 confusingly-worded amendments printed in full.

"Generally, I think Miami-Dade County conducted a very good election," said Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Penelope Townsley, according to NBCMiami. "Am I embarrassed or disappointed by some of the things that happened? Absolutely, but I have to focus on simply on getting it right and that's exactly what I will move to do."

This is a developing story.

Before You Go

Andrew S. Hague, Shelley J. Kravitz, Penelope Townsley

Miami Votes...And Counts

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