ALBUQUERQUE — The state Democratic Party completed its canvass of regular and absentee ballots in New Mexico's presidential caucus Tuesday, one week after the votes were cast.

As volunteers continued to qualify provisional ballots, Gov. Bill Richardson said it was apparent party officials weren't prepared for high turnout and suggested it may be time to return to a state-run primary.

"I think a debate should take place among New Mexicans and Democrats on whether we should continue with a caucus or with a full primary," said Richardson, who threw the New Mexico vote open when he ended his presidential campaign in January.

Volunteers are continuing to qualify more than 17,000 provisional ballots that will determine whether Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama is the winner.

With the figures updated but still without provisionals, Clinton led by 1,074 votes; Before the canvass, her lead was 1,123 — a change of "less than seven-tenths of 1 percent," state Democratic Party chairman Brian Colón said.

According to the canvass, 157,354 Democrats cast absentee, regular or provisional ballots — a 54 percent increase from the party's first presidential caucus four years ago and 30 percent over the state-run primary in 2000.

"This increase is absolutely unprecedented," Colón said.

Colón couldn't offer an estimate for when the tabulation of provisional ballots would be completed but said he was confident the party will beat a Friday deadline for certifying caucus results. "I'm very optimistic," he said.

Heavy turnout for the Feb. 5 caucus prompted long lines, and organizers ran out of ballots at many polling sites. Richardson said he was disappointed party officials weren't better prepared but felt Colón "has done a good job in rectifying the situation." "It is obvious that what was not anticipated was that there was such a huge turnout," Richardson said. "Nonetheless, there should have been more ballots, more staff and more volunteers."

The governor said after the counting is finished, he plans to convene a meeting of Democrats, county officials and party leaders to discuss ways to improve the process for future elections.

Richardson feels the February date should remain since it gives New Mexico early recognition in the presidential race and attracts candidates. He won't support moving it back to June "because then we're irrelevant."

"I do believe it's important to keep the pre-primary early in February," he said. "Perhaps we should resort to the state running it. I'd be open to that."

About 8,000 provisional ballots were deemed cast by registered Democrats and were therefore qualified to be counted as of Tuesday.

Volunteers working four-hour shifts are comparing voters' names against county lists of registered Democrats. A second search was added to compare the names against a statewide database.

"Our volunteers are working very hard to ensure that every voter who participated on Feb. 5, and for each of the ballots we can verify, that those votes will be counted," Colón said.

Reporters and photographers were briefly escorted Tuesday through the accounting firm where the work is occurring. Dozens of people sat at laptop computers, checking databases as they shuffled stacks of ballots.

On a whiteboard in one room, volunteers had charted the time each bundle of ballots was reviewed, with the number of confirmed votes in an accompanying column.

Outside, there was a sign-in sheet and name tags for volunteers. Nearby, a kitchen was cluttered with donuts, chips and candy. An election official said the carne adovada brought by one volunteer was long gone.

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

Provisional ballots would have been just an obscure part of the canvassing and certification of the caucus had the vote in New Mexico between Obama and Clinton not been razor-thin.

Colón credited campaigns of both candidates for energizing voters in New Mexico.

"What was overwhelming was the number of Democrats who came out to participate in the process," he said. "It's a testament to the campaigns and what they did in a 10-day period."

Associated Press writer Barry Massey in Santa Fe contributed to this report.




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