AUGUSTA (AP) — Maine has only a tiny share of the delegates needed to nominate a Democratic candidate for president, but neither of the two rivals’ campaigns are taking them lightly as Sunday’s party caucuses draw closer.

With the delegate count between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama so close after Super Tuesday, both campaigns are cranking up their activities in Maine. Clinton plans to attend a rally at the University of Maine in Orono on Saturday, the same day that Obama will attend a rally in nearby Bangor.

Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, will be stumping for his wife in Portland tonight. He’s scheduled to attend a rally at the Portland Exposition Building beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Hillary Clinton had 1,000 delegates and Obama had 902. Maine has 24 delegates in play, just over 1 percent of the 2,025 needed to clinch the nomination.

“With the delegate vote so close, every delegate counts,” said Maine House Speaker Glenn Cummings of Portland, who supports Obama.

Earlier in the campaign, Maine’s importance was largely written off because its caucuses were scheduled after Super Tuesday, when it was assumed a front-runner would be identified. But Clinton supporter Elizabeth Mitchell, the state Senate majority leader, said that’s all changed.

“Now that we’re into a battle for delegates, Maine’s in play,” said Mitchell, of Vassalboro. “The battle’s going to go right on.”

Both campaigns said they were actively recruiting supporters to attend caucuses and phone banks are busy. Cummings said the level of support for Obama was demonstrated at a Portland campaign visit in September, when Obama collected $400,000 in campaign donations.

Clinton’s campaign is expected to trumpet her support by party notables, including Gov. John Baldacci.

The highly competitive nature of the contest ensures heavy attendance at Sunday’s caucuses, according to party officials. Absentee balloting should increase the caucus vote even further.

Party Executive Director Arden Manning said more than 5,500 absentee caucus ballots had been sent out to those who requested them as of Wednesday and 3,000 had been received with Wednesday’s deadline approaching.

Republicans cast more than 5,300 votes in their caucuses last weekend.

“Super Tuesday’s results of a dead heat between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama mean Maine Democrats have more power than we have had in a long time in terms of choosing a nominee,” Manning said. “Maine’s 24 delegates are up for grabs and in this environment they will be crucial to the candidates.”

The caucuses will send 3,556 delegates to the state convention in Augusta, where national delegates will be chosen based upon the percentage of the vote each candidate receives.

Maine’s Democratic caucuses follow Saturday’s in Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and come just ahead of Tuesday’s preference events in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.

Maine Republicans said Wednesday that presidential caucus ballots from nearly all participating towns have been counted, but the results remained unchanged since the weekend when Mitt Romney emerged as the clear winner.

With votes counted from 96 percent of the towns holding caucuses, the former Massachusetts governor had 52 percent, leaving John McCain with 21 percent, Ron Paul with 18 percent and Mike Huckabee with 6 percent. Undecideds accounted for 2 percent of the votes.