Yet another example that every vote counts.
Barack Obama has won the Guam Democratic caucuses by a margin of 7 votes.
With all of Guam’s precincts reporting, Obama won 2,264 votes (50.1 percent) to 2,257 votes (49.9 percent) for Hillary Clinton, his sole remaining rival for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Obama led the vote count throughout the day and had a 52.7 percent to 47.3 percent advantage over Clinton by late afternoon. Clinton then won the sole remaining precinct – Guam’s largest village of Dededo – by a 61.9 percent to 38.1 percent margin, which brought her to within 7 votes of Obama in the overall tally.
Polls closed at 6 a.m. eastern time Saturday, but vote counting on the U.S. territory took over 13 hours to finalize.
Obama and Clinton will split the U.S. territory’s four pledged delegate votes evenly, with two apiece.
The win gives Obama his 31st victory of the campaign, including his win in the Texas caucuses in March. Clinton has won 16 contests, including the Texas primary.
Update: Looks like there will be an imminent recount of the votes. Given the minuscule margin, this was all but inevitable. The Clinton campaign has to be amazed at their performance, since they had downplayed Guam to the point of nonexistence, except for a last minute pledge to give Guamians (?) increased voting rights and the Obama campaign had projected that they would win the territory by 11%. It seems that Hillary destroyed Obama in Guam’s largest city of Dededo by a 61%-38% margin. Perhaps that best news for Hillary comes from this report by the local TV station in Guam:
The DPG also noted a high number of spoiled ballots in Dededo.
In which case, it’s very possible that Hillary might actually win on the recount. And yet, it is Guam and is hardly a game changer momentum-wise, but it might portend good news for Hillary during Tuesday’s primaries in Indiana and North Carolina.
May 3rd, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Not that it matters, but wasn’t she supposed to win this one?
May 3rd, 2008 at 9:11 pm
JB,
Nope. Guam was a caucus, so everyone expected Obama to win it (as far as I know, Hillary has not won a single caucus so far this season). In fact, the Obama campaign itself predicted an 11% win (55-44), so I suppose you could spin it as a testament to Hillary’s newfound momentum that she was able to keep it close.
May 3rd, 2008 at 9:18 pm
LJ you forget Nevada, which she won (kinda).
May 3rd, 2008 at 9:24 pm
>”Yet another example that every vote counts.”
Not really, at least in Dem primaries and caucuses, because 50.1 gets no more delegates than 49.9.
May 3rd, 2008 at 9:32 pm
David,
Oh yeah, I complete forgot that Nevada was a caucus. It’s so bizarre that she won the state but he still managed to get more delegates.
BobH,
True. Something tells me that when this primary season is over, the DNC will be changing a lot of rules by the time 2012 rolls around.
May 3rd, 2008 at 9:52 pm
A littl off topic, but I’m excited anyway. I voted today early in the clerk’s office for the Indiana Primary. There was a line to vote, and most of the murmering was regarding Obama. I think I was the only republican in the line (from what I overheard). I voted for Romney, and Huckabee, Paul, and of course McCain were also on the ballot. I considered crossing over and screwing up the democrats, but they seem to be doing a fine job of that themselves, and I also wanted to make sure I voted for my own congressman, too, so I had to vote straight GOP.
May 3rd, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Merkis,
You wrote in Romney on your ballot? A vote for Hillary would have meant more.
May 3rd, 2008 at 11:24 pm
This is big for Hillary. The Obama projection was that he would win by 11%. There will be a recount too, because of some spoiled ballots, but the recount is in an area where she ran better than he did. This indicative of a trend.
Today Obama is talking unity – he must be in trouble deep.
Disaffected Hillary voters want nothing to do with him. He’ll need every vote he can get.
May 4th, 2008 at 6:25 am
LJ, they’re Guamanians.
May 4th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Her Inevitableness also won the American Samoa caucus, as well as the New Mexico “caucus”, which despite Bill Richardson’s insistence to the contrary was really a party-run primary.
May 4th, 2008 at 11:43 am
9 – True…I learned that on the Colbert Report
Colbert’s interview with Guam’s representative is hilarious…one of the best ever.
And, yes, this is kind of surprising. Should portend good things for her…though I don’t think she can beat him in NC.
May 4th, 2008 at 11:45 am
LJ – a lot of Romney and Huckabee supporters are voting for their original guy in primaries with the hope that large margins for them (even if they don’t win) will convince McCain to make them VP, and the frontrunner for the nomination in four or eight years.
May 4th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Is Romney actually on the ballot in any ogf the remaining states? He wasn’t on the PA ballot, I know.
May 4th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
Here in Idaho (our primary is within next 2 weeks!), I know they had to get some volunteers to cross out the names of the ballots that have already been printed. I hope Romney’s name is not crossed out. If he is, then I’ll request for a write-in ballot.
I am voting for Romney only because I despite McCain. He IS NOT the best Republicans have to offer. He won only because he has a better recognization id than anyone else in the field, except for Rudy.