Photo by Erin FredrichsTribune

Tribune

Democratic Party of New Mexico employee Miriam Diemer rests on a ballot box as co-worker Eliot Enriquez lifts boxes of ballots for delivery to REDW LLC, the Northeast Heights company where the official count is taking place. Party officials had nearly 17,000 provisional ballots to count after Super Tuesday.

Photo by Charlotte Hill CobbTribune

Tribune

How New Mexico counties voted in Tuesday's Democratic caucus.

Photo by Craig FritzTrbune

Trbune

Poll workers Roy Steriet (center) and Janice Saxton tell the crowd of Democratic voters at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Bernalillo that there are too many to serve. "The good news is we ran out of ballots," Steriet said, adding, "The bad news is we ran out of ballots." A record number of Democrats turned out for Tuesday's presidential caucus.

Jake Schoellkopf/The Associated Press

Voters wait in a long line at Montezuma Elementary School to vote in New Mexico's Democratic presidential caucus. The outcome of Tuesday's vote won't be known until nearly 17,000 provisional ballots are counted.

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New Mexico's history of close national votes continues, as state Democratic party leaders expect to spend all day determining who won the state's presidential nominating caucus.

At noon today Democratic Party of New Mexico officials planned to begin counting nearly 17,000 provisional ballots to decide the race between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

With four of 184 precincts yet to be counted, party officials said Clinton led Obama by 210 votes this morning.

Super Tuesday in New Mexico produced whopping voter turnout — about 50 percent higher than four years ago.

But that record turnout — more than 153,000 votes were cast — resulted in a nail-biting conclusion to a Super Tuesday in which 22 states held Democratic nominating elections.

Brian Colón, chairman of the state's Democratic party, said early today that results from four precincts were being delayed — three in Rio Arriba County and one in Sandoval County — because the county chairmen could not be reached.

Beth Adams, the party's caucus director, said this morning that those four outstanding precincts remain the party's top priority.

"We're going to have to get up there (to Rio Arriba County) within the next couple of hours and get them and focus on getting a complete count on those," she said.

But the real wild cards were about 16,800 provisional ballots waiting to be counted.

Provisional ballots are given to voters who show up at the wrong site, whose names are not on registered voter lists provided by the state or those who requested an absentee ballot, but signed an affidavit saying they did not return it, Colón said.

Those provisional ballots will be counted beginning at noon at a Northeast Heights accounting firm. That will happen simultaneously with a certification of all ballots cast Tuesday, Adams said.

"It's going to be a thorough process," Colón said. "It's going to take some time."

Statewide, provisional ballots accounted for 10 to 12 percent of all votes cast, Colón said.

Party officials today said the high number is at least partly the result of their plan to encourage voters to cast ballots anywhere they could.

"We really wanted to make sure that people who weren't able to get an absentee ballot, who were working in Santa Fe, like legislators, could get a provisional ballot," Adams said .

Turnout for the caucus Tuesday surprised party officials. As of last week, Colón was predicting low turnout of 30,000 to 40,000 voters. As political stars started showing up, he started revising his estimate upward.

In the space of four days, Sen. Edward Kennedy, former President Clinton, Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Obama's wife, Michelle, all visited New Mexico.

In the end, turnout on Tuesday eclipsed the roughly 106,000 who voted in the Democratic caucus in 2004.

"We've not had this level of participation before," Colón said.

Heavy turnout brought its own problems, however, with voters at sites across the metro area reporting long lines and confusion.

Polling places such as the Our Lady of Sorrows gymnasium in Bernalillo — one of the four precincts whose vote totals are still not known — ran out of ballots around 4:45 p.m. The same happened at LBJ Middle School in Taylor Ranch.

At Rio Rancho High School, where all 37 of Rio Rancho's polling places were consolidated, thousands of people were waiting to vote around 5 p.m., Capt. Jimmy DeFillippo of the Rio Rancho Fire Department said at the time.

"They're just trying to maintain order," DeFillippo said. "They're shuffling people from the gymnasium into each room to get voted."

Turnout was so high that Rio Rancho police were called out for traffic control, said Laura Sanchez, executive director of the state Democratic Party. She also said party workers were dispatched there to help process voters.

About 2:30 p.m., at least 40 people waited inside the Jewish Community Center at 5520 Wyoming Blvd. N.E. just to take a chair and wait.

One poll worker there said, "It's four or five times greater than our wildest dreams."

Colón this morning said he regretted that some voters couldn't cast ballots because of the long lines.

"I have deep regrets for folks that were not able to wait in line and vote. I extend my sincere regrets and apologies.

"With the Democratic Party of New Mexico, if it embarks upon hosting another caucus, we've got to do a better job. We're committed to that."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.