CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Presidential hopeful John Edwards on Wednesday accepted the endorsement of the New Hampshire Service Employees International Union amid questions about the vote’s validity.

According to those involved, the union’s board voted Oct. 23 to endorse Edwards rival Sen. Barack Obama – not Edwards. Union president Gary Smith promptly called Obama, who was at a rally in Boston, to give him the good news.

A person familiar with the conversation said it was clear to Obama the endorsement was a done deal. The person did not want to be named because the conversation was meant to be private.

Tuesday night, everything changed. The board, with some new members elected during the weekend, deadlocked 8-to-8 on a motion to endorse Edwards. Smith broke the tie in Edwards’ favor.

Obama, campaigning in Iowa, hinted at the intrigue.

“There were some interesting aspects of how that whole thing played itself out,” Obama told The Associated Press. “I won’t go into all the details of it; maybe you can get some of the background from others. We have got some very strong allies in the union, and had received word that the board initially had voted to endorse us. There were some changes to procedure made that we don’t entirely understand and I’ll leave it up to you guys to sort it all out.”

Sorting it out, however, was problematic Wednesday. Smith would not directly answer if he had promised Obama the endorsement last week.

“I’ve been in contact with several campaigns about where they are relatively in the polls with our members,” Smith said three times.

Asked a fourth time whether he had spoken with Obama, Smith snapped: “You can stop asking. That is the answer. It’s going to be the consistent answer, no matter how many times you keep asking.”

Jay Ward, the union’s director, acknowledged the board’s 7-to-5 vote on Oct. 23 favoring an Obama endorsement.

But he said members of the executive board returned a day later and wanted to reconsider, especially with the union’s annual convention scheduled for Saturday.

“It was a very close vote and we have an opportunity to get a broader sense of members three days later,” Ward said.

In a straw poll at the convention, 50 union members said they were undecided or favored no immediate endorsement. Edwards got 23 votes, Obama 19 and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 14.

That didn’t sit well with Stephen Foster, a board member until Saturday who also considered last week’s vote for Obama final.

“The vote was taken and the chair announced that we had a presidential endorsement for Senator Obama. The board then authorized him to call Senator Obama and convey the news,” Foster said. “That should serve as evidence that the sense and intent of the board was clearly in play without question at that time. President Smith now says that the board goofed on procedure and that somehow that nullifies the Tuesday vote.”

Foster said the process raises serious questions, including the board’s “selective enforcement” of its rules to un-do the Obama endorsement.

At a news conference, Edwards brushed past the issue.

“I think I’m the one they endorsed,” he said with a chuckle. “It’s a very long and very democratic process. … But at the end of the day, they decided they supported me.”

Then then renewed his criticism of Clinton at Wednesday night’s debate in Philadelphia.

“One of the things, unfortunately, we saw last night was a lot of bobbing and weaving and triangulation – everything but being direct and straight,” Edwards said. I think the American people saw that they are going to have very clear choices in this election.”

He pointed to Clinton’s answer about drivers’ licenses for illegal immigrants.

“In the course of three minutes, I heard Clinton, Senator Clinton, say two different things. When you get a yes-or-no question, you can’t say yes and no.”

Edwards also said the United States needs to do better than President Bush.

“We are at a crucial point in American history, when for the last seven years the American people have lost trust in their president. We desperately need for our country a president who will be honest and direct and sincere. That’s what the American people are looking for in their next president.”

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Associated Press Writer Amy Lorentzen in Des Moines contributed to this story.

AP-ES-10-31-07 1639EDT