CAPE ELIZABETH — Sen. Barack Obama cruised to an easy win in the Cape Elizabeth caucus this afternoon, defeating Sen. Hillary Clinton by a vote of 72 to 28 percent.

More than 680 people turned out to participate in the caucus, more than double the number of those that showed up in 2004, according to Jamie Wagner, the chairman of the Cape Elizabeth Democratic Committee.

The large crowd delayed the start of the caucus by more than an hour.

Obama won by a final tally of 556 to 217. That total includes the 94 Democrats who voted absentee.

The Illinois senator also won in Yarmouth, defeating Clinton by a three-to-one margin. The final vote there was 484-139, Obama.

Democratic caucus-goers in Portland are waiting in long lines at Portland High School while a team of 30 registrars works to herd them into the event.

Organizers have assured the hundreds still waiting outside the high school that anyone in line by 4 p.m. will be admitted to the caucus. Voters waited in lines that stretched from the school’s entrance on Cumberland Avenue to Congress Street as recently as 2:30 p.m.