Senator Barack Obama won the first ever Democrats Abroad Global Presidential Primary. The results determine the allocation of 4.5 delegate votes at the Democratic National Convention. Senator Obama won 65.6% of the vote and 2.5 delegate votes, and Senator Clinton won 32.7% of the vote and 2 delegate votes. A further 2.5 delegate votes will be determined at the Democrats Abroad Global Convention in April. Democrats Abroad also has 4 superdelegate votes. A total of 22 delegates, each with a half vote, will attend the Democratic National Convention, August 25-28 in Denver.
All posts tagged global presidential primary
Democrats Abroad Vote and the Washington Post Listens
The venerable Washington Post has joined the fray and reported on the historic Democrats Abroad primary vote. The International Herald Tribune has been all over this story, but its great to have the paper of record inside the Beltway take notice. The Post points out that the campaigns and their surrogates are reaching out to the expatriate community for votes and cash:
Before the caucuses opened on Super Tuesday, Obama supporter Zbigneiw Brzezinski rallied voters in nine European cities via conference call; local TV stations covered the event. … . Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton have both traveled to London for fundraisers. Clinton supporters in London distributed cookies and worked polling stations when the caucuses opened Tuesday.
The Democrats Abroad Global Presidential Primary runs through next Tuesday, February 12 so if you haven’t voted yet you still have time.
Americans Abroad Cast Votes, Including E-Votes in Democrat’s Global Presidential Primary
Wired has a nice breakdown of how the Democrats Abroad Global Presidential Primary works. Voting began yesterday and runs through next Tuesday, February 12. I voted using the Democrats Abroad online process yesterday and it was simple and, I felt, secure — plus it allowed me to print out a confirmation of my vote, though I could not save it electronically as a PDF. The system is run by Everyone Counts and they claim that their security is tighter than that at ordinary polling places and that they monitor the voting. Wired, writer Nicole Martinelli interviewed Everyone Counts CEO Lori Steele who pointed out that they require three forms of information: personal data, a ballot number and a PIN.
After reading about hackers breaking into all manner of secure systems for the past two decades, I assume that nothing online is 100% secure. But, as we’ve learned over the past few years, electronic voting in live polling places back home can be insecure as well. That said, if all goes well with this first global e-vote, I’m hopeful we might be able to vote in general elections using such methods in the not too distant future.
