Gov. Bill a spoiler in New Mexico on Feb 5?

How many votes will Gov. Bill Richardson take from Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama when New Mexico Dems go to the polls Feb. 5?

Probably some big part of 5,000 is our conjecture.

The New Mexico Democratic Party sent out about 5,000 absentee ballots, starting in December. Some pundits suggested Bill would have gotten a huge part of the party turnout if he had stayed in the race. But he pulled out January 10, probably after some of those absentee ballots had been mailed in.

Plus, he's still on the ballot for walk-in voting Feb. 5. Voters who've been asleep this past week just might mark him in.

So, a news angle we'll be following on Tuesday night is the vote for Bill, and how much it may subtract from the remaining two candidates.

KSFR 101.1 and KSFR.ORG streaming live will carry election returns beginning at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 5, with Bill Dupuy at the news desk, Dan Gerrity at a local watering hole popular among local politicos, and national coverage from Public Radio Interactive.