With 68 percent of precincts reporting, Barack Obama appears to have won Hawaii by a landslide. Obama had 20,974 votes, or 76 percent, to Sen. Hillary Clinton's 6,529 votes, or 24 percent, as of 11:39 p.m.

The turn-out was incredible -- far more than maybe anyone had expected.

"I don't think we could have prepared for this," one of the caucus organizers at Jefferson Elementary told me mid-way through the evening.

I'm sure there will be much debate in the days to come about the process. With the overwhelming number of people, many sites ran out of materials or even took good faith pledges from people that they would register as Democrats afterwards if they were allowed to cast ballots tonight.

The site I was at ran out of both printed ballots (they had to handwrite them) and name cards (which they used to write down the precinct in which each person was voting). One person compared it to "choosing your high school prom king and queen." That was less than an hour into the voting.

As soon as I finished talking with people in line at Jefferson Elementary, I grabbed a seat at a table where ballots for one of the smaller precincts were being collected and watched the action from there.

It was chaos. The only organized elements appeared to be the tables, arranged by precinct, and the line. There were hundreds of people crammed in the cafeteria and thousands outside. People stood on tables. Every 10 minutes, someone would go to the microphone and assure people that Everything was fine, No, the rules had not been changed, we've just run out of ballots.

Some people who arrived around 7 p.m. saw the line, which was at that point wrapped around several school buildings, and turned away. Others probably just couldn't find parking in cramped Waikiki and gave up. I parked at the Waikiki Shell and walk over to the school.

But the mood among those who stuck around were surprisingly upbeat. Les Among, a member of the Waikiki Neighborhood Board, likened it to "neighbors who haven't seen each other in a while."

It was this great, big crazy mass of people who knew they were taking part in something big, even though they may not have known exactly what to do, how the caucus worked or even if they were registered Democrats.

It will be interesting to see if this momentum holds up till the general election.

Just walking onto the site and catching sight of that never-ending line was a personal thrill. I realized tonight that I've never actually gone to a polling place to vote in an election, since I left Hawaii at 18 for school and so have since been an absentee voter by default. Checking the little box and sending the ballot in the mail is definitely not the same thing. Here were people who had taken the time to come to the site, and waited in line for probably over an hour just to make a little mark on a piece of paper that was then shoved unceremoniously into a manila envelope.

They say democracy is messy, and tonight most certainly proved it.

Keeping with the national trend so far, Obama appeared popular among the youngest members of the crowd.

"He's visionary," said Diamond Head resident Jahmelia Lindsay, 25, who showed up to participate in her first caucus last night.

"I like Hillary, but the main difference is that she voted for the war in Iraq," Lindsay said. "(Obama) strikes me as a man of integrity. He excites me as a candidate."

Ala Moana resident Arika Trimnell, 21, who said she is "disappointed with the political scene," stood in line for 1.5 hours to cast her ballot for Obama.

"He's a fresh face, and we need change," she said, waiting in the last of the line to get into the cafeteria. "He's young, and new to the game, but I think that's what we need."

"There are so many varieties of people here," she added. "They're all willing to stand in this long, ridiculous line to make their voices heard. That's a great thing."

People of all ages sported Obama t-shirts and stickers to show support for their candidate.

"It's beautiful," Lindsay said, looking around at everyone standing in line. "I feel like I'm a part of history."

It was heavy support for Hawaii-born Barack Obama among the crowds of people who turned out at Jefferson Elementary tonight.

Organizers who collected the ballots at one of the smaller precincts here tonight counted 71 total ballots, which was a huge increase from 2004, when they collected a mere 3 ballots. Of those 71, 60 were votes for Obama and 11 were votes for Hillary Clinton.

The larger District 23 reported 431 ballots for Obama, 191 for Clinton, 3 for Dennis Kucinich and 2 uncommitted.

"I was a dyed-in-the-wool Republican, but I became a card-carrying Democrat because of Obama," said Mary Rivera, 64, of Kapahulu.

"In my retirement years, it's great to find a man who can energize not just young people but senior citizens like myself," she said.

"It would be nice to have a first woman president," said Dolores Biroan, 71, of Kakaako. Biroan voted for Hillary Clinton "because she is experienced."

Francis Ajo, 28, came out to the caucus to support Clinton.

"I support universal health care, and I'm against the war," she said. "She will get stuff done."

"I'm proud to support her as a woman, but that would be a footnote to everything else."

"Both (Obama and Clinton) are close, but neither has a satisfactory answer for the issue of gay marriage," said Dayv St. Pierre, 40, of Kaimuki.

St. Pierre said he is casting a ballot for Obama because of his performance in the debates and his proposed tax policies.

Matt Jisa, 43, of Waikiki, stood in line for nearly two hours to cast his ballot for Dennis Kucinich in part because of Kucinich's efforts towards peace and his favorable stance on gay marriage.

"Even though he's dropped out (of the presidential race), he's worth listening to, so any attention I can draw to Dennis Kucinich is worth it," he said.

Organizers are currently tallying the paper ballots at Thomas Jefferson Elementary in Waikiki by subdistrict.

As the line shuffled into the cafeteria, organizers directed people to different tables, which were arranged by subdistrict. They also gave each person a name tag with his or her subdistrict written on it (although they ran out of name tags shortly after the voting started).

Those who were interested in becoming delegates to the state convention or precinct officers hung out at the tables for their individual subdistrict. Those who want to go to the state convention have to stick around till the very end of the night.

Did anyone participate in the caucuses this evening? How did it go?

As of 7:45 p.m., organizers at the Waikiki caucus ran out of printed paper ballots and were scrambling to handwrite the names of the presidential candidates on scraps of paper.

It's now just past 9 p.m. and it seems the line has dissolved. People estimate that at least several thousand people turned out to Jefferson Elementary this evening.

On a scale of 1 to 10, the organizers and volunteers scored "a solid 8," said Les Among, a member of the Waikiki Neighborhood Board who helped to organize the caucus.

"At first, there was chaos when everyone saw the line, but everyone held together like a football team and pulled it off," he said.

Between the handwritten ballots and seemingly endless line of voters, many had suggestions for next time.

"When I saw the crowd, I was gonna turn around," said Yolanda Amerson, 38, of Kapahulu. "They could have lost voters right there."

Amerson suggested that the caucus could have opened for the entire day, not just during the evening.

But, "I felt so passionate about who I wanted to vote for that it was worth standing in line," she added.