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# Swing States
Queues mean final Virginia, Florida results could be delayed by hours
Mitt Romney’s hopes are likely to hinge on Virginia – but long queues and state law means the result could be a late one.
MITT ROMNEY’S hopes of taking a win in tonight’s US Presidential election could hinge on victory in Florida and Virginia – but the Republican hopeful may have to wait several hours for a result in the ‘Old Dominion’ and ‘Sunshine State’.
Though polls closed in Virginia at 12am Irish time – making it one of the first states to close – massive queues of voters waiting to cast their ballots mean the result could be delayed for some time.
State law means anyone in a queue to vote by the time polls officially closed are still allowed to cast their ballots – but with queues of several hours, it may be some time before the backlog can be cleared and an authoritative count can begin.
New York Times figures showed that with 41 per cent of votes counted, Romney led Barack Obama by 54-45 – but with a significant urban-rural divide in the state, which neighbours the heavily-Democratic capital city of Washington DC, the early result could be skewed by the delays.
Similar issues are thought to be arising in Florida, where polls closed at 1am Irish time but where many people remain in queues – which has even led to #StayInLine trending on Twitter as people encourage each other to remain patient and continue to cast their votes.
With over half of the votes counted so far in the Sunshine state, the race remains neck-and-neck with Obama holding a minuscule lead in the race for Florida’s 29 votes.
Read: Liveblog: US Election 2012
