Exit polls give Barack Obama slight lead in Ohio; state remains too close to call

While the all-impor­tant state of Ohio remains too close to call at this hour, CNN has released exit polling that shows Barack Oba­ma with a slight lead — 51% to Mitt Rom­ney’s 49%. That may seem like good news, but exit polls don’t always cor­re­late with actu­al results. Until we get hard data, we won’t able to do much more than spec­u­late about the Buck­eye State.

The pop­u­lar vote may be decid­ed by pro­vi­sion­al bal­lots. The Colum­bus Dis­patch reports:

A larg­er than usu­al num­ber of pro­vi­sion­al bal­lots crop­ping up in some areas of Colum­bus and Cleve­land were being report­ed today, caus­ing con­cerns that they could impact a close election.

Many peo­ple try­ing to vote in Dri­ving Park in Colum­bus and sev­er­al minor­i­ty neigh­bor­hoods of Cleve­land were told they weren’t reg­is­tered or were reg­is­tered in the wrong place. As a result, they were required to cast pro­vi­sion­al ballots.

Elec­tions offi­cials aren’t allowed to begin count­ing pro­vi­sion­al bal­lots until Nov. 17. Indi­vid­ual boards of elec­tions must then cer­ti­fy their counts by Nov. 27, although Sec­re­tary of State Jon Husted could move that date up a few days.

1.8 mil­lion peo­ple vot­ed by mail or vot­ed ear­ly, accord­ing to Ohio elec­tions officials.