Once the largest employer in the Al Anbar province, the facility has been dormant since last year, when insurgent fighters used its towers as sniper positions, prompting U.S. forces from nearby Camp Ramadi to shut down the facility.

Efforts on the part of factory managers and American officials have not been able to return many of the 2,200 former employees to work.

But this week, the factory once again became a symbol of hope for stability in one of Iraq's most volatile places.

On Sunday, troops led by members of the Utah-based 222nd Field Artillery began working to prepare the factory to act as a staging area for the distribution of ballots throughout Anbar, officers from the unit said.

"There was a definite energy you could feel from the poll workers who came by to pick up materials," said Maj. Victor Sarkosi, an officer with the 222nd who has worked closely with civilian officials from the factory.

Today, the ballots will be returned to the factory and retrieved by the Utah guardsmen.

And there will be plenty to pick up.

In Ramadi, home to some 400,000 residents, only about 2,000 voters participated in the October referendum.

On Thursday, however, several polling stations ran out of ballots, forcing an emergency extension of voting hours as election officials raced to resupply the centers.

The military reported a similar scene in nearby Fallujah, Anbar's second largest city.

The day did not pass without some violence. At least one bomb exploded in Ramadi, a place where such occurrences are not uncommon on any day. Another bomb reportedly was defused at a voting site in Fallujah, The Associated Press reported.

But such incidents appeared relatively rare - several major insurgent groups had agreed not to attack polling places - and officials believe the election garnered more participation than the two preceding it, especially among the nation's minority Sunni population.

An authoritative tally of voters will not be available for several days. When Sarkosi, a resident of Ogden, arrives at the glass factory to pick up the ballots today, he and his fellow soldiers will run each truckload past a backscatter van - a mobile X-ray detection system used to scan large vehicles - to ensure none of the boxes are rigged with explosives.

In Anbar, U.S. troops know, even days fraught with triumph can be deadly for the complacent.

mlaplante@sltrib.com