Overseas Democrats: Obama

Sen. Barack Obama won his 11th consecutive primary Thursday when Democrats Abroad announced that he had prevailed in their global primary. Even a scientist from Antarctica participated.

The Illinois senator and Democratic presidential candidate won 65.6 percent of the expatriate American vote. Rival Hillary Clinton was supported by less than half that number with 32.7 percent.

This is the first U.S. primary ever to allow voters to pick their candidate online. About half of the more than 22,000 votes were cast over the internet, says Jody Hedeman Couser, a Democrats Abroad spokeswoman.

Voters were also able to cast their ballots by fax and mail.

But U.S. citizens from 164 countries and territories -- for the first time ever in this process -- voted for their candidate online. Voters literally chimed in from the ends of the earth -- even all the way from Antarctica. That voter was Adam Lutchansky, who is an American on a scientific expedition.

"The online Democrats Abroad Global Primary expanded the frontier of voting opportunities, and it works easily, even from the harshest continent on Earth," Lutchansky said in a statement issued by Democrats Abroad Thursday.

"With the U.S. image so badly damaged by the present administration, American Democrats living overseas were eager to have their voices heard," said Christine Schon Marques, International Chair of Democrats Abroad in Geneva. "Across the board we saw an enormous diversity in participation, including many first-time voters."

The upshot of the global primary: Obama will be allocated an additional 2.5 delegate votes for the Democratic National Convention in August, and Clinton will be allocated two. Another 2.5 will be determined at an April convention in Vancouver, British Columbia. Democrats Abroad also hold four votes.

Obama currently leads with 1,319 delegates, 161 of whom are superdelegates, according to numbers compiled by CNN. Clinton has 1,250 delegates, 234 of whom are superdelegates. 2,025 are needed to win.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/02/obama-wins-the.html