No Winner Yet in New Mexico; Obama leads by less than 100

[npincus]

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iCc92PUVIygkNFF0LiBuVuSFmLXAD8UL0NI02

...and 16,000 ballots still need to be counted. Talk about nail-biters!

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico's Democratic presidential caucuses went into overtime Wednesday.

The day after Super Tuesday, less than 100 votes separated Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, four precincts were still out and more than 16,000 ballots remained to be counted.

With 180 of 184 precincts reporting, Obama held a slim lead — 65,036 votes, compared with 64,965 for Clinton. Both had roughly 48 percent of the vote.

Clinton and Obama are vying for 26 of New Mexico's 38 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Twelve so-called super delegates are not bound by caucus results.

State Democratic Party Chairman Brian Colon said results from four precincts were delayed because the county chairs could not be reached. About 16,870 provisional ballots also remained to be tallied.

[sunonmars]

1. Clintons in the lead now by 117 votes

and by 13 delegates to 12

[El Supremo]

2. So what?

This is not winner take all.

You (and others) are worrying about, at the most, one delegate.

[harun]

5. Yah, won't matter either way really (n/t)

[Alexander]

7. It means good news for Obama if he wins a state with a large Latino population.

In fact, I suspect Texas will be just as close.

[racaulk]

8. Agreed.

With the results being this close they'll get 13 delegates each, no matter who "wins" the state. There might be an off-chance that there would be a 14/12 split, so this ultimately would come down to two delegates at the most.

[HeraldSquare212]

3. "County chairs could not be reached"?????

Do you think they've been dropped in the middle of the desert with the ballots, or have them stashed in the overhead bin on their way to a lifetime of ease in a warm climate?

[TwilightGardener]

4. Wow--maybe he's got a chance in a Hispanic state after all?

[blogslut]

6. Pretty odd

I mean, they knew this was coming. What's the dealio, New Mexico?