They are accountants, office managers, bloggers and social workers; activists, elected officials and political neophytes.

And on Saturday, they all want to get their tickets punched for Denver to cast a vote in the most compelling Democratic presidential race in more than a generation.

More than 350 have signed up, only 57 get to go. By Saturday's end, there will be a couple of hundred disappointed Democrats.

"It's going to be quite a day," said Gregg S. Bossen, 43, an Atlanta accountant who faces one of the day's most daunting tasks: winning a delegate's slot from District 5, where 40 men are competing for two spots on U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's list.

Democrats will gather in each of the state's 13 congressional districts Saturday for caucus-style meetings to elect Georgia's 57 pledged delegates to August's national convention. They'll meet in union halls, cafeterias, hotels and, in one case, a comedy theater, for what could be all-day affairs.

With the race for the nomination still undecided, the caucuses carry a weight not seen in decades. 1980 was the last time Democrats went into the convention with a serious competition, and 1952 was the last time a Democratic nominee was chosen by delegates at the party convention. The last truly brokered convention, when the nomination is not settled after the first two rounds of voting, was 1952, when Adlai Stevenson emerged as the winner.

And like much about the process of picking the Democratic nominee, today's action is complicated. Of the 57 Georgia delegates, 40 go to Obama and 17 to U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, based on the outcome of the Feb. 5 presidential primary. More than 300 have signed up to be Obama delegates; more than 50 are seeking a Clinton spot.

Each district gets a certain number of delegates based on the primary vote, and each district's total is split by gender. District 5, where Bossen and four new friends are running together as a ticket, had the highest primary turnout and has the most delegates —seven. Five of those are Obama's and two are Clinton's. On Saturday, three women and two men will be elected for Obama, and one man and one woman will be elected for Clinton.

There are similar breakdowns all across the state, and the delegate-hopefuls are e-mailing, blogging, cajoling and in some cases, feeding fellow Democrats to turnout and cast a vote. They're using social networking Web sites, like Facebook, to campaign and advertise their credentials and boast of their Obama or Clinton bonafides. Some are also using lower-tech tools such as phone trees and paper flyers.

In each district, Democrats will split into Clinton and Obama caucuses. Candidates for delegate spots will be allowed to give speeches of up to 3 minutes. That all but guarantees a long day in District 5, where more than 80 people have signed up to be Obama delegates. The voting begins after the speeches.

For some of the political newcomers who caught Obama or Clinton fever, today could provide a crash course in hardcore politics. In some cases, it's not just average voter versus average voter. In District 5, for example, where 45 women are competing for three spots on Obama's team, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin is one of those 45.

Among District 5 men, state Sen. David Adelman (D-Atlanta) is on the ticket. In other districts there are wives of congressmen, state lawmakers, school board members and other big names competing for coveted spots.

But, Saturday is not necessarily the last opportunity. When state party leaders gather for their annual state convention in May, they'll choose an additional 19 pledged delegates from across the state. They'll also choose 11 party leaders and elected officials to be pledged delegates. That has generated some strong feelings among regular voters who don't understand why they have to compete with the top-flight politicos like Franklin for a seat.

It's also pushed some of them to get creative.

Bossen and his team are running together as a ticket and have dubbed themselves the "5 for 5." They're not to be confused with the District 4 "Rock Solid for Obama" group.

In each case, a group of strangers banded together to run as a ticket.

"Two heads are better than one, and three heads are better than two," said R.J. Hadley, one of three members of the Rock Solid team. Hadley, 39, manages his wife's veterinarian practice in Conyers. He met fellow Rockers Adrienne Randolph of Stone Mountain and Leslie Moye of DeKalb County at a delegate training session the state party held weeks ago.

The three figure that if they combine forces, they can multiply their support. Hadley finds 50 friends, Moye finds 50 and Randolph finds 50, and all three persuade their friends to support the other two as well.

"It becomes a team sport," said Moye, 47, an aide to Atlanta City Councilwoman Joyce Sheperd.

Moye said they expect up to 400 Democrats to caucus in District 4 and they need all the help they can get.

Randolph, 47, a full-time parent, said Saturdays's task is daunting.

"What I'm looking forward to is a victory," she said. "I know we have a hard hill to climb. But that's OK. We've got victory. I know we do."

Bossen and his four friends —Deirdre Barrett-England, William Jelani Cobb, Camara Jones and Emily Schunior— are also Obama supporters who met during this process.

Once he learned people often team up at these events, he went in search of a woman.

"I found Camara and we started talking and she came up with the idea that it's probably better if we had five," Bossen said.

Now, he said, they have a team as diverse as the 5th district.

"Look at the five of us together," he said. "One straight black man, two black women, a white woman and a gay white man. It feels really good that way."

Down in College Park, in the 13th District, Jocel Thornhill will be outside the Bannekar High School caucus location at 8:30 a.m., more than two hours before the elections. As an Obama hopeful, she plans a breakfast tailgate to fortify fellow Democrats and hopefully score a few votes.

"My strategy really was to focus on 25 core people and ask them to bring at least 1 person and then try to persuade the others that are coming to vote for me, either through our discussions at the caucus, during my speech or in the parking lot," said Thornhill, 40, a management consultant from Mableton.

She'll be serving mixed fruit, orange juice and pastries.

"And we might have breakfast burritos," she said.

Like many of the others, she's never run for anything.

"I just felt so passionate about this campaign and this is the first time I ever really felt like I wanted to be part of the process," she said. "I thought it would be exciting."

David Worley, a former Democratic Party of Georgia chairman and four-time convention delegate, said interest is much higher in this year's contest .

Worley, an Atlanta attorney, is running again to be delegate, In fact, he's one of five men running for the only Clinton spot in the 3rd district.

While it's not unusual to see campaigning for delegate seats, he said, "there are many more people running," adding, perhaps ruefully, "although most of them are on the Obama side of the ledger."