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Sanders Trumps Clinton In Democrats Abroad Global Primary, Gains 9 Delegates

By William Gomez
Published on: 10:44 PST, Mar 21, 2016

CNN has reported that Bernie Sanders has comfortably won the Democrats Abroad global presidential primary over former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton 69 percent to 31 percent earlier Monday.

The international organization announced that Sanders received 23,779 votes from American Democrats living in more than 170 countries while Clinton picked up only 10,689 votes. The win awards Sanders an additional nine delegates while Clinton picks up four.

According to the recent delegate count, Hilary owns a significant lead over Vermont Senator, Bernie Sanders, with a total of 1,630 delegates (467 super delegates) to Bernie’s 870 (24 super delegates). While 2,382 delegates are needed to win the nomination, many believe Sanders has too much ground to make up to catch Clinton. He would have to win big in big states and pray that voter turnout for a surging Clinton begins to drop.

This year’s overseas vote totaled nearly 35,000, which greatly exceeded the 2008 vote total by nearly 50 percent (23,000), when current president Obama defeated Clinton 66 percent to 33 percent.

The record number turnout was due in part to the large number of volunteers that ran more than 150 in-person voting centers in 38 countries along with accepting ballots by fax, email, and post, according to the organization’s site.

The voting was held from March 1 through March 8.

The win now gives the Senator from Vermont and Democratic presidential nominee hopeful, Sanders, 10 primary wins so far in his campaign. It’s also his first win since a surprising narrow victory in the Michigan primary, in which he never held a poll lead in the state, on March 8.

Fellow Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton– and current front-runner– has won 19 contests thus far, sweeping the primaries in Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio last week.

Six states have a primary/caucus this week: Arizona, Idaho, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii, and Washington. As noted earlier, Sanders will need a little more than a miracle to keep his head above water in his race for the Democratic nomination. Many have already considered Clinton as the sure shot for the Democratic nomination and believe she will have the best chance to win the presidential race despite who comes out of a Republican race that has seemed like more of a circus than a campaign for presidency.

Billionaire mogul, Donald Trump is the front-runner for the Republican nomination and considered by many to be disrespecting the nomination process with his ongoing antics that are proving to divide not only the Republican party, but the American people.

The Democrats Abroad organization allows American citizens living outside of the United States the opportunity to have a voice in their government and the ability to participate in their country’s presidential nomination process. The organization is an international branch of the Democratic National Committee and was created over 50 years ago during the 1964 presidential election by Americans living in London and Paris.

The grassroots effort by those who formed the organization was to ensure that every American abroad had the right to vote without having to make their way back to the U.S. on election day.

Democrats Abroad currently employs committees throughout the world, including areas in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Along with allowing citizens abroad the opportunity to play a part in their countries presidential race, the organization keeps ex-pats informed of their rights and assists them with participating in the U.S. political process.

The organization is recognized as a “state” Party by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) being represented by eight voting members.

[AP Photo/Frank Augstein]

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