"As many (new registrations) as we have had, it is still not like the organized voter drives in other states," she said. "And we haven't had the problems reported in other states, no reports of irregularities or potential fraud."

Most of the new registrations are coming from two sources: get-out-the-vote campaigns on Utah college campuses, and Utah military personnel stationed out-of-state, who will be voting absentee.

In fact, Naccarato says she anticipates a record number of absentee ballots, primarily service men and women, whose ballots could decide close races.

In Davis County, Rawlings said his office has sent out about 4,000 absentee ballots, compared to 400 a year ago.

Scott Hogensen, Weber County elections administrator, said his office has sent out some 2,200 absentee ballots so far, up from around 500 last year. Voter registrations are up 10 percent so far, from 100,000 to 110,000 on the active voter rolls.

Salt Lake County has not seen much of an increase in absentee voting. In 2000, residents placed 14,370 absentee ballots, while as of Tuesday morning the number was just shy of 13,000.

"I think we'll exceed the 2000 number, but it's not going to be by as much as I expected," county elections director Julio Garcia said.

The State Elections Office has not seen any evidence of voter registration fraud as has been identified in other states (Fred Flintstone and Mary Poppins were among many of the disallowed registrations across the country).

Naccarato expects her fair share of problems, primarily because of what could be a record voter turnout and the expected long lines. Those lines could grow longer as voters are made aware of new voting rules mandated by Congress.

For example, first-time voters who registered by mail will have to show photo identification, no exceptions.

And yes, 23 of 29 Utah counties will still be using the punch-cardballots made infamous by the "hanging chads" of the Florida recounts of 2000.

Unlike Florida in 2000, Utah's county clerks use "pickers and fluffers"to brush the chads loose from the ballot and to inspect the ballots by hand.

"It's quite an operation to watch," Naccarato said. "We've had pickers and fluffers for years, and we haven't had a problem" with hanging chads,even though there were problems with some defective ballots where the punched holes did not line up with the candidate.

Because of the Florida debacle and the subsequent passage by Congress of the Help America Vote Act, Utah and other states have now come up withspecific policies on how votes will be counted and when they won't.

In other words, the chad can still dangle, but under new rules it must be detached from two of four corners or the vote is not counted.