DENVER -- Long lines at Colorado polling places on Election Day left a residue of uncertainty Wednesday, with thousands of ballots uncounted and some races unsettled.

As many as 60,000 absentee ballots remained untallied in the Democratic strongholds of Denver and Pueblo counties. At least one high-profile race -- a Denver measure to fund preschools -- hung in the balance.

Delays and breakdowns also hampered voting in Montrose and Phillips counties, and several other counties were unable to provide complete results well past midnight.

Elections officials across the state struggled Tuesday with new machines and new procedures, delaying vote counts, angering party officials who worried their supporters would give up and go home, and turning a civic rite into an ordeal for many.

"I can't believe I'm in the United States of America," said Sean Kelly, a Denver resident who gave up and went home after waiting three hours in line at a polling place.

In Douglas County, some voters said they waited in line for more than four hours before being able to cast their ballots. At one polling place, 500 voters waited in line to cast ballots on one of 12 voting machines. The last voter in one Douglas County line cast his ballot at 11:30 p.m.

"It's important to get out and exercise that right even if it takes you three-and-a-half hours to do it," the last voter said. He did not want to be identified.

On Wednesday, Douglas County Clerk and Recorder Carole Murray said the county had 300 voting machines but needed 500. She said she will investigate what else went wrong and have it fixed in time for the 2008 Presidential election.

"There are a lot of angry people out there and I don't blame them. I would be angry too because the voting process is sacred," said Murray. "I offer my apologies and I want you to know I didn't measure up the way I needed to."

Election officials said the long lines were because there weren't enough voting machines. The 300 machines they purchased cost $1.4 million. The number purchased was based on a typical ballot.

"Needless to say, the ballot was not a typical ballot and people were in the polls much longer," said Murray. "So, plain and simple, we didn't buy enough machines."

"Whether we need to buy 200 machines or 300 machines, I think we need some time to figure that out," said county commissioner Steven Boand.

The electronic voting machines tended to crash at centers in Douglas County when they tried to produce hard copies of voters' completed ballots, something that is required by the state.

"This is a very human process in that mistakes were made," said county commissioner Melanie Worley.

Officials said they are forming a special panel with guidance of the Secretary of State to look into the problems and figure out solutions.

Back in Denver, it was one big problem after another at the Denver Election Commission.

A power outage spared the electronic voting machines, but knocked out laptop computers that officials use to verify voters at some polling places. Although the laptops work on battery power, they were unable to log in to the central computer. That added to lines already long because of the unusual number of issues on Tuesday's ballot.

The delays prompted a trip to court when state Democratic Party officials unsuccessfully petitioned a judge to order the polls kept open late.

Order or no, lines persisted long after the official poll closing time of 7 p.m. The final vote in Denver was cast at 10:30 p.m.

Then, one of the county's two optical scanning machines for absentee ballots broke down. Election Commission spokesman Alton Dillard said an estimated 40,000 absentee ballots remained uncounted because of the breakdown. A complete tally wasn't expected for several days because the broken machine needed a part from the manufacturer.

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper said he will hold meetings Wednesday to re-examine every aspect of the election process, to ensure that things run smoother next time.

He called the delays that voters had to endure an "outrage." He also apologized to voters and vowed that problems like the ones that cropped up Tuesday will never happen again on his watch.

The Denver Election Commission issued a joint statement Wednesday morning on Tuesday's fiasco, blaming the technology:

"We all had expectations regarding the performance of the Electronic Pollbook system. We are embarrassed and chagrined that our expectations were not met. We apologize to the Denver voters for the inconvenience they endured. We will engage the services of an external technology expert to perform an assessment to identify and recommend the necessary modifications to the system," the statement said.

Denver City Auditor Dennis Gallagher, who recently issued a critical report of the Denver Election Commission, said the people responsible should be held accountable.

"Heads should roll," he said. "Yesterday was an example of how not to encourage people to vote."

Gallagher called for the resignation of the head of the Election Commission and the city clerk.

"The major should ask for the resignation of Wayne Vaden, our county clerk or flat out fire him," said Gallagher.

Gallagher said John Gaydeski and senior management at Denver Election should also be fired.

"I have to tell you if it were me, I would be so humiliated by what happened yesterday, I'd consider resignation," said Gallagher.

"We are truly embarrassed and we apologize to the voters of Denver and we will not do another vote center election again until we get the election poll book problem worked out," said Denver Election Commissioner Sandy Adams.

Adams said Gallagher was wrong to call for Vaden's firing. Vaden said he is calling for an investigation of what went wrong.

"I'd like the focus to be more solution oriented. If we didn't have the right horsepower to make those election poll books work, what was the right horsepower?" said Adams.

Major John Hickenlooper said he will put together a panel of private sector leaders to look into the problem and determine what happened.

"We've got a scanner down but at this point to even be discussing personnel changes could be a distraction," said Hickenlooper.

Hickenlooper and Council president Michael Hancock will co-chair the panel.

They will work with the CEO from Quest and former DU chancellor Dan Ritchie. They said that will probably take five weeks or so.

"We've got a scanner down but at this point to even be discussing personnel changes could be a distraction," said Hickenlooper.

"We want to find out everything that happened," said State Rep. Alice Borodkin, (D) Denver.

The city switched from 200 neighborhood polling places to 55 vote centers this year. The move dramatically cut the number of election workers needed, but also made for long lines as more voters were forced into fewer venues.

Results Still Tricklling In

One heavily advertised measure, a proposal to increase the sales tax rate by .12 percent to fund preschool, was eking out a margin of less than 1,000 votes -- a toss-up given the number absentees out.

"This is one of the longest ballots in state history, which translates to absentee ballots of four pages instead of two pages," Dillard said early Wednesday. "It takes longer to count."

Pueblo County officials reported 19,900 absentee ballots remained uncounted when the office closed for the night.

Several other counties hadn't reported final returns by the time the state's earliest commuters were warming up their cars Wednesday, including Douglas, Adams, Montrose, Routt, Park and Grand.

State officials had predicted a relatively high 60 percent statewide turnout for the midterm election, or some 1.8 million voters out of nearly 3 million. Secretary of State spokeswoman Lisa Doran said long lines were reported around the state, from Denver to Steamboat Springs, which she blamed on the long ballot -- with 14 proposals -- and new voting machines.