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Karl Rove: Fox News Ohio call 'premature'

Fox News has called Ohio for President Barack Obama, but Karl Rove disagreed with that decision Tuesday night, saying the state is far from settled and the call was “premature.”

Fox News’s Chris Wallace said the Romney campaign does "not believe Ohio is in the Obama camp,” noting that he got an email from a top Romney aide who said the campaign disagrees with the network’s call. He then asked Rove if he believed Ohio has been settled.

“No, I don’t,” Rove said.

“I think this is premature,” he added. “We’ve got a quarter of the vote. Now remember, here is the thing about Ohio. A third of the vote or more is cast early and is won overwhelmingly by the Democrats. It’s counted first and then you count the election day and the question is, by the time you finish counting the election day does it overcome that early advantage that Democrats have built up in early voting, particularly in Cuyahoga County.”

Rove said the network needs to be “careful about calling things when we have like 991 votes separating the two candidates and a quarter of the vote yet to count. Even if they have made it on the basis of select precincts, I’d be very cautious about intruding in this process.”

Wallace then replied, “Well, folks. So, maybe not so fast.”

Fox News’s Megyn Kelly also weighed in, saying, “that’s awkward.”

Shortly after, Kelly headed over to the “decision desk” to interview the team that made the call for Fox News.

“We were thinking this wouldn’t be necessary, but as it turns out,” Kelly said, trailing off as she made the long walk through the studio.

Fox News's decision desk said it stood by the call.

“We are actually quite comfortable with the call in Ohio,” the pollster told Kelly. “Basically, right now there is too much Obama vote that's outstanding there that we know is going to come in, that is going to be Obama and while, yes, there are a number of counties out there that will be Romney, the largest thing that's outstanding right now is the Cleveland area, is Cuyahoga. This is Democratic territory and we're quite comfortable with the idea that Obama will carry Ohio.”

As of publication, Rove is still disputing the call.