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Partisan tensions continued to rise this morning over the standards being used to evaluate the provisional ballots that form Attorney General Patricia Madrid's last hope of victory for a seat in Congress.

Poll workers continued sifting through the remaining 3,756 uncounted ballots today, determining which are valid and which will be disqualified. U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, a four-term Republican incumbent, leads Madrid by 1,487 votes.

Democrats have acknowledged that Madrid's candidacy now hinges on the hope that an overwhelming majority of the ballots will count - and count for Madrid.

Republicans today stepped up their criticism of a move yesterday that may allow ballots disqualified earlier to count, a decision Republicans attributed in part to Madrid's office.

"It's wrong," said Pat Rogers, an attorney for the state Republican party."The rules couldn't be clearer. Changing the rules in the middle of the game is always problematic."

Democrats countered that their opponents were playing tactical games with voting law.

"It's typical that Republicans love democracy only as long as they get to control who votes," state Democratic party lawyer John Boyd said.

The issue could turn into a prolonged legal battle if the race draws closer, but it remains unclear how many ballots could be affected.

Workers are expected today to finish determining how many of the remaining ballots are valid. Then they can begin tallying the final votes, a job that won't be finished until at least tomorrow.

But the number of ballots that pass muster will provide a clue into Madrid's chances of making up her deficit.

Democrats have held out the possibility of seeking a recount if Madrid is able to close the margin.

Republicans cried foul yesterday over legal advice handed down by Madrid's office involving the remaining 2,698 provisional ballots.

Provisional ballots are often cast by people who simply showed up at the wrong precincts on Election Day. But provisional ballots cast by people who aren't registered or are registered in another county, among other criteria, won't be counted. The ballots also won't count if the voter didn't provide enough identification information, or didn't sign their ballot, officials say.

The matter of contention now surrounds that last criteria. Provisional voters were asked to sign three documents on Election Day: a signature roll maintained by poll workers, a form attached to the ballot envelope attesting that they did not cast another ballot in the election, and a voter registration card also attached to the envelope.

The county's rented election warehouse, earlier the scene of near-fisticuffs between party lawyers, saw a calming of tensions Sunday as both parties emerged from a meeting saying they'd reached agreement on ground rules for counting the provisional ballots.

Among those ground rules, county election officials determined that voters who signed the registration card but neither of the other forms would be disqualified, Diaz said.

But an inquiry Monday afternoon to the Secretary of State's Office led the county toward the opposite conclusion.

The Secretary of State's Office sought an opinion from the Attorney General's Office, and Assistant Attorney General Chris Coppin said he spoke Monday afternoon with Bernalillo County Attorney Jeff Landers. Coppin said he related to Landers his office's advice to the secretary of state: that any one of the three signatures would satisfy the requirement to qualify the ballot.

Enrique Carlos Knell, Wilson's campaign manager, criticized that decision Monday, saying Madrid's office should not have been involved in a decision affecting a campaign in which Madrid is a candidate.

"This is a clear conflict of interest," he said. "This ruling is in her personal interest and is not consistent with the law or with maintaining the integrity of the election."

Coppin said Madrid had assigned the question to him and had "no role" in developing the legal advice, which he said was just that - advice.

"The final decision rests with the County Clerk's Office," he said. "The role of the Attorney General's Office is to advise our clients. Whether they follow that advice is their decision."

Coppin added: "I'm befuddled as to why anybody would think this is unusual."

Landers said today that the county is still waiting on something in writing from the Secretary of State's Office, which is tasked with running New Mexico elections. Ballots that fall into the single-signature category are being set aside, he said.

It's not clear how many ballots could be affected by the ruling. Diaz declined to offer an estimate. Republican staffers said the number was "significant."

Madrid campaign spokeswoman Heather Brewer said she wasn't aware of the issue. She said Madrid remained determined to stay in the race until the final vote count is official. Wilson declared victory last week, a move Democrats have called premature.

Inside the warehouse, which has become the fluorescent-lit nexus of the race, workers dealing with the uncounted ballots Tuesday sat along both sides of a row of tables lined with a bank of computers. Those computers were tied into a database of registered voters maintained by the Secretary of State's Office. Workers used that database to try to determine whether individual provisional ballots were cast by legitimate voters registered in Bernalillo County.

In an adjoining room, lawyers and staff from both parties clustered around their own computers crunching numbers.

"We're here until the bitter end," one Republican worker said Monday night, to which another added, "except it's not going to be bitter."

The audit of the overall vote, which is being carried out alongside the provisional ballots, remains slightly less than half finished after six full days of work. By law, the county has 10 days to complete the audit, also called a canvass.

"We have until Friday," Diaz said.

Asked exactly what that meant, he said: "11:59 p.m."

In spite of the tension that has hung over the warehouse all week, today started on a positive note. The staff greeted Diaz with kazoos and balloons. It was his birthday.