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Some Florida absentee ballots will not be counted until Wednesday

Pinellas County officials in Florida have announced that 9,500 absentee ballots will not be counted until Wednesday.
People wait in line to vote at a fire station near downtown, during the U.S. presidential election in Miami, Florida November 6, 2012. (Photo by REUTERS/Andrew Innerarity)
People wait in line to vote at a fire station near downtown, during the U.S. presidential election in Miami, Florida November 6, 2012.

Pinellas County officials in Florida have announced that 9,500 absentee ballots will not be counted until Wednesday. Pinellas is part of the Tampa Bay area and went for Barack Obama in 2008.

In addition to the wait for absentee vote totaling, many people were still casting votes at Florida polls hours after they had officially closed. A little after 10 p.m. Eastern time, some of the last voters waiting in line were ushered inside a Miami-Dade County polling location.

Brickell, a Miami neighborhood that saw one of the longest lines in the heavily Democratic county, was visited by Mayor Carlos Gimenez Tuesday evening to see why voters had to wait in line for hours.

While official returns remain uncertain, exit polls showed that wealthy, white evangelical voters cast their ballots overwhelmingly in favor of Mitt Romney. With many residents in traditionally Democratic counties still voting, however, it looks like another long night in Florida.