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Super Tuesday's New Mexico Democratic "caucus" — really a primary disguised as a slow-motion train wreck — was anything but super.

In a tight race between two historic and wildly attractive candidates — Sen. Barrack Obama of Illinois and Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York — thousands of New Mexico Democrats faced outrageously long waits to cast their ballots on Tuesday. And then, they still had no definitive results Wednesday showing who had prevailed.

Once again the nation looked to New Mexico for answers late Tuesday night and was told: maybe Wednesday, possibly Thursday. Party officials only began counting nearly 17,000 provisional ballots Wednesday at noon.

The party looked ill-prepared to conduct the primary and even more poorly prepared to handle what should have been predictable problems — including insufficient ballots, poll workers and parking — as they developed Tuesday.

How could the state party brass not know that there was the potential for the record — actually the whopping record — 152,000-voter turnout that occurred Tuesday?

In short, it was disrespectful to the party faithful — who, incidentally, were the true-blue heroes in Tuesday's contest.

That thousands of Democratic voters stuck it out, waiting hour after hour in some cases to insist that their votes be counted, is a tribute to their character, dedication to their country and determination to make a difference. Unfortunately, their party leadership served them poorly.

Party officials owe thousands of registered Democratic voters, and hundreds of volunteers who did their best to make a dysfunctional system functional, an apology — as well as a promise that it will never happen again.

Party Chairman Brian Colón's apology late Tuesday to those who did not get a chance to cast a ballot because of the widespread problems is but a start. Likewise his acknowledgment that "we've got to do a better job. We're committed to that."

This was not a matter of inconvenience. It was, bluntly, a matter of disenfranchisement.

To be fair, those hundreds of Democratic volunteers saved the day in many places and are the only reason the entire voting system did not completely collapse under the intense pressures at some polling places, where voters initially faced near chaos, then long lines, insufficient ballots, poor access and poor-to-no accommodation for handicapped or otherwise challenged voters.

There are no excuses for compressing what ordinarily would be a 12-hour voting day, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. into a a 7-hour day, from noon to 7 p.m. — especially given the candidates, character and historic context of the contest.

Why would one not dramatically ramp up one's preparations, with more ballots, more workers and more security, when in the days immediately before the primary the state attracted visits from both high-profile candidates and a host of surrogates.

And who in the party brass had the idea that only one polling place could handle the entire Democratic voting roster that usually is spread across 37 polling places for the city of Rio Rancho?

Hundreds were still trying to vote at grossly inadequate facilities at Rio Rancho High School more than a hour after the polls closed at 7 p.m. Imagine: It was the only polling place for the state's third-largest city! Voters waited two to three hours to cast ballots, many spending a portion of that time waiting out in a frigid wind, after which they filed like snails through school corridors before reaching the auditorium, where 500 of them at a time sat in sections waiting to be called into the crowded polling area in the auditorium lobby.

There's no way to even guesstimate how many would-be voters gave up and left or who never even made the effort, after seeing or hearing news reporters about the debacle.

That pretty much takes "democracy" out of the Democrats.