CNN: New Mexico Dems: Still counting after all this time
(CNN) – They're counting votes in New Mexico — still.
Six days after Super Tuesday, when millions of voters cast ballots in 24 states and America Samoa, the winner remains in doubt in the Democratic presidential caucus in New Mexico. Volunteers with the Democratic Party of New Mexico have been working 16 hours a day - in shifts - to try to figure out whether Democrats there preferred Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York or Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, the state party said Sunday. "We know it is urgent to get these results completed," Chairman Brian S. Colon of the Democratic Party of New Mexico said in a statement Sunday.
The national media spotlight has moved on to primaries and caucuses in other states, including contests Tuesday in Maryland, Virginia and Washington D.C. Yet 227 volunteers with the Democratic Party of New Mexico are still slogging through provisional ballots — votes cast by people whose names did not appear on lists of eligible voters. Election rules let people cast provisional ballots that will be counted as long as officials verify that the person is eligible to vote.
As it stands now in New Mexico, Clinton leads Obama by 1,066 votes out of about 154,000 cast, according to the state Democratic Party. That total does not include 17,276 provisional ballots. The party faithful have been going through those provisional ballots - under the watchful eye of Clinton and Obama representatives - to determine how many are valid. The party has so far determined that 2,778 provisional ballots should be counted as votes for one candidate or the other, it said Sunday. Once party volunteers finish verifying or rejecting provisional ballots - a process called "qualifying" - then they will actually tabulate results.
The final count will determine how many of 26 delegates will go to Clinton and how many to Obama. The razor thin margin so far suggests that the two candidates could split the delegates or that one will emerge with an advantage of one or two delegates. That's not much when you consider that a candidate needs 2,025 delegates to become the Democratic Party's presidential nominee, but the extremely close race makes the New Mexico outcome the subject of more than academic curiosity - if only slightly....
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/02/11/new-mexico-dems-still-counting-after-all-this-time/