CROWN POINT | Hoosiers have been voting early and often, particularly in Northwest Indiana, in the final run up to today's primary election.

Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita said 167,783 absentee ballots had been cast by Monday afternoon, a nearly three-fold increase over each of the past three statewide primaries.

Those voting are asking for Democratic ballots by a 3-1 ratio, a testament to voter interest in the Democratic presidential race between U.S. Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Rokita's office said 10,953 in Lake County and 2,874 in Porter County had voted by 1 p.m. Monday either in person, by mail-in ballot, absentee ballot or traveling voter board ballot.

Long lines formed Monday morning at the Porter County Administration Building, where dozens of voters hurried in to cast their ballots in early voting before the noon deadline.

More than a dozen people stood in line early Monday outside the Lake County elections and registration office in Crown Point, where in-person early voting was taking place. Election workers said the line has extended many times that length during recent days.

"We should have a large turnout in Gary because Senator Barack Obama is really and truly stirring up a lot of young people," Gary Mayor Rudy Clay said.

Lake County has 13,539 new voter registrations, second only to Marion County. Porter County ranks ninth among the 92 counties with 3,758.

Rokita plans to dispatch teams of election inspectors to "hot spots" with a history of vote fraud today.

"I am not going to indicate the counties we are going to be in tomorrow, other than to say we are going to have several teams in several counties, and one of them may very well be Lake," Rokita said.

The U.S. attorney's office, the FBI, and the Lake County prosecutor and sheriff announced today their offices will be open to take election complaints.