U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois won an impressive victory last night in the Hawai'i Democratic caucuses as people turned out in record numbers to share in a historic moment for the Islands.

Obama, who was born here and graduated from Punahou School, defeated U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York by a 3-to-1 margin when the preliminary count was completed early this morning.

Across the Islands, volunteers struggled to handle the surge of new Democrats, including many who registered to vote and joined the party just last night.

The party had printed 17,000 ballots, but volunteers at many caucus sites ran out of ballots and blue party membership cards and had to improvise with notebook paper and index cards.

The caucuses have drawn fewer than 5,000 people in the past but the vote count totalled 37,182 last night.

U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, said he spoke with Obama last night by phone and described the scene at his caucus site at Manoa Elementary School.

The congressman said it was "just the most marvelous expression of grassroots democracy. It was thrilling, absolutely thrilling, to be there."

With many attending a caucus for the first time, Abercrombie said the party took it on faith that people were there to register to vote and join the party.

"What we ended up doing, and, I think, I expect a lot of other people did, is went to the honor system finally," he said.

U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawai'i, who has endorsed Clinton, said he waited in line for an hour and 45 minutes to vote at Jefferson Elementary School in Waikiki.

"It made me very proud," he said. "It makes no difference what the outcome is, but the fact that the turnout was so extraordinary shows that democracy works."

Inouye, a superdelegate, said he plans to stay with Clinton through the national convention even though there is some pressure within the party for superdelegates to reflect the votes in their states. The senator said the superdelegate process was created to give elected officials and party leaders the discretion to choose candidates on their own.

"He's doing very well," Inouye said of Obama. "But the election is not over yet, so we'll wait a little longer."

SUPPORTERS CELEBRATE

Twenty of the state's 29 delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August will be awarded proportionally based on the results of last night's presidential preference poll. The other nine are superdelegates.

About 75 Obama revelers were blowing the roof off at a victory party at the E&O Trading Company at Ward Centre.

Tony Agao, 56, of Salt Lake, said, "I can remember when I was in the third or fourth grade and Kennedy was on the black-and-white TV and this is the same thing. Obama, he speaks from the heart, local-style."

"All we can do is vote for him. I see the future in his eyes," he said.

Therom Lewis, 48, said: "He's the right guy at the right time. He comes across with a message that's sincere. I've never backed a candidate before in my life but I'm backing him all the way. I'm very excited. I'm just glad that I'm alive to see this."

Andy Winer, an attorney and Democratic strategist volunteering for the Obama campaign, said an extensive volunteer effort helped drive turnout.

"I think he represents the kind of change that people are looking for, not only nationally put particularly in Hawai'i," Winer said. "I think it's change with a degree of optimism and hope that people want after the eight years of the Bush administration.

"And then folded into that, of course, you have a local boy, you have somebody that was born and raised here. It was synergy. You had the right message and the right candidate in the right place."

Annelle Amaral, the party's O'ahu County chair, said party leaders thought there would be a substantially higher turnout than in the past but there was no way to know exactly how many people would show up.

"How could we be ready?" Amaral said. "How could anyone have anticipated this kind of attendance. It's phenomenal. I've never seen this."

Obama's victories yesterday in Wisconsin and Hawai'i were his ninth and 10th wins in a row among primaries and caucuses since Super Tuesday, and gave him momentum going into Ohio and Texas on March 4. The Clinton campaign has targeted Ohio and Texas as essential for her to rebound and win the nomination.

Obama appeared to be attracting many of the new Democrats last night, while Clinton was stronger with traditional Democrats. Obama ran television and radio advertisements in the Islands and talked about his local roots to help distinguish himself from Clinton, who sent her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, to campaign for her last weekend.

State House Majority Leader Kirk Caldwell, D-24th (Manoa), a local Clinton volunteer, described the turnout as "unbelievable."

"Unbelievable, in terms of turnout. In terms of energy. I think it's historic," he said. "I think people thought they were part of something special tonight."

At Kapolei Middle School, Carolyn Golojuch, chairwoman of the district caucus site, said she was prepared for a larger-than-normal crowd.

Many of the potential voters did not even know if they were registered Democrats, she said.

"I'm not sweating this," she said. "They say this will be 10 times bigger than anything we've ever had before. But you know what? Last time we only had 20 people."

PEOPLE LINE UP

Shortly after 6 p.m. — an hour before the caucus began — at least 80 people were already lined up and the crowd swelled as the 7 p.m. vote approached.

Isabel Freund, of Makakilo, participated in her first caucus last night and was prepared to cast her vote for Clinton at Kapolei. "We have two very good candidates and I'm just very interested in participating," she said. "We definitely need a change."

At Kawananakoa Middle School, many of the voters in line held signs or wore pins supporting Obama.

Kellie Peterson, 28, a first-time caucus goer, said its important for Hawai'i to support a native son. "We need to overwhelmingly win it for Obama," she said.

At Kawananakoa, site coordinator Patrick Stanley said he was "cutting as many corners" as he could to speed up the process.

"We have a lot of new voters," he said.

Deloris Guttman, of Downtown, was trying the caucus for the first time. "I think Hawai'i is going to count this year," she said. "Before, we didn't matter."