Obama Wins Global PrimaryElana Schor in Washington
guardian.co.uk,
Thursday February 21 2008 1:24 PM EST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/21/barackobama.hillaryclinton1Barack Obama today scored his 11th straight victory over Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democrat nomination after a convincing win in the "global primary" of Democrats living overseas.
Obama took 66% of the vote to 33% for Clinton after Americans living in more than 160 countries cast their presidential ballots by mail, fax, and Internet during the weeklong primary conducted by Democrats Abroad. His victory was even stronger than average in the UK, where he took 69% of the vote to Clinton's 30%.
The association of Democrats living outside the US reported record turnout for this year's White House race, which has riveted the world's attention to the close contest between Clinton and Obama. Expatriates voted in person in more than 30 countries, at hotels in Australia and Costa Rica, at a pub in Ireland and at a Starbucks coffee shop in Thailand. The results took about a week to tabulate as local committees around the globe gathered ballots.
"With the US image so badly damaged by the present administration, American Democrats living overseas were eager to have their voices heard," Democrats Abroad chairwoman Christine Schon Marques said in a statement announcing the primary results.
Despite Obama's strong showing, he and Clinton will come close to splitting the delegate votes from the overseas primary. Obama won 2.5 delegates to count towards this summer's nominating convention, while Clinton won 2.
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