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Democrats ask for help as New Mexico count continues

By Associated Press
Monday, February 11, 2008

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Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama won four state contests held over the weekend, but New Mexico's caucus still has no clear winner — six days after Super Tuesday — in the race between him and Hillary Clinton.

Volunteers have worked more than 200 shifts to help count regular ballots and begin examining more than 17,000 provisional ballots that will decide the tight race, and more volunteers are needed, state Democratic Party Chairman Brian Colón said in a news release Sunday.

By Sunday afternoon, nearly 2,800 provisional ballots had been qualified in the ongoing process, he said.

"We know it is urgent to get these results completed," Colón said. "We also know it's key that we count the vote of every registered voter."

With all votes counted except the provisionals, the preliminary count shows Clinton's leading Obama by 1,123 votes, 68,654 to 67,531.

Only one delegate from New Mexico hangs in the balance. Based on results so far, Clinton has earned 13 delegates and Obama 12. The popular vote winner will receive another one.

In an e-mail sent to supporters Saturday, the Obama campaign wrote of the number of states he won, adding, "with New Mexico still in the balance." Obama won contests Saturday in Washington state, Nebraska and Louisiana and won Sunday in Maine.

Colón said the Democratic Party of New Mexico was reaching out for volunteers to keep the count process going.

"Obviously in this early part of the week, we'll need a higher level of committed volunteers" as people return to work, Colón said Sunday. "So the need for volunteers is going to increase."

Over the weekend, experienced volunteers helped boost the speed of processing ballots.

On Saturday, volunteers were checking provisional ballots against two voter databases at a rate of 200 per hour, but by Sunday the rate had increased to 600 to 700 per hour, a party volunteer said.

"I think in one day we had over 100 volunteers," Colón said. "Their productivity has tripled since they've become familiar with the system."

Mara Lee, Clinton's state director for New Mexico, said the progress on qualifying the provisional ballots is going well. "The nice thing is that there are tons of volunteers here."

Still, she said, "we're anxious to see the results, and we're looking forward to having a decision made."

Lee said about 20 volunteers came at the request of the Clinton campaign to help.

Carlos Monje Jr., state director of the Obama campaign, said volunteers also arrived at his campaign's request to lend a hand, but he could not say how many.

"It's been a slow process, but there's progress," he said.

Monje said having an agreement, which was signed Thursday, between the party and the campaign representatives on the processing of the provisional ballots is helping.

Colón has not said how long examining the provisional ballots will take, but he has said the party will not sacrifice accuracy for speed in getting a decision.

Volunteers will continue working split shifts about 16 hours a day until the election results are certified, Colón said.