KRQE -Provisional ballot counting could begin Wednesday

Link: KRQE - Albuquerque, New Mexico - News, Video, Weather Forecast, Sports, Community, Health, Homes | KBIM - KREZ | Provisional ballot counting could begin Wednesday.

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - The state Democratic Party today released updated numbers on regular and absentee ballots in last week's caucus. The new numbers don't include any of the nearly 17,300 provisional ballots cast last week, which officials have not begun to count, according to a Democratic Party news release. The new count trims Sen. Hillary Clinton's lead by a few votes. She leads Sen. Barack Obama by 1,074 votes out of 140,078 votes cast. Also, 4,211 votes were cast for the other candidates on the ballot, led by John Edwards and Gov. Bill Richardson. Both had dropped out of the race before the caucus. About 7,400 provisional ballots have been qualified so far. Volunteers are conducting a second search of the remaining 10,000 to see if they were cast by qualified voters