A quick follow-up to Abhi’s post about how American voters who happen to be abroad get to participate in the white-hot brown-hot race to official candidacy [Thanks, Devendra]:
That’s right, Bharath Obama took his namesake nation, 71% to 28 [PDF]. Obama also got 100% of Pakistan’s five votes. Bangladesh proved a bit more challenging, but he still won, though the split was a much more competitive 58/42. Meanwhile, he cruised in Nepal: 73% to Hillary’s 27. Considering these results, SAFO truly lives up to its name.
These votes aren’t trivial, since members of the Democratic party who are overseas count as a state under party rules– a state with 22 delegates. Accordingly, the candidates did not take these Americans who are abroad for granted. Obama’s campaign in particular was recognized for being “dedicated” and “extraordinary”. Looks like their efforts paid off.
…it doesn’t count….
This is the most fascinating election ever. I love learning all this new funky stuff about our government.
1 · razib said
why not? 🙂
It does count. Razib is wrong.
for it the count you need the intersection of the following characters:
1) significant state. (e.g., new york, california, michigan, florida)
2) it has to be a state which always votes dem in the fall.
3) it has be a primary.
4) it has to have no black people
5) it has to vote for hillary clinton
1 & #5 are probably fulfilled. ergo, it doesn’t count. if you want to dispute it, take it to god, a.k.a., mark penn.
i mean are “not fulfilled.”
and cannot be Illinois
or Missouri
missouri doesn’t count. hillary won 95% of the state.
5 is crucial. Texas will count if Hillary wins it. Otherwise, superdelegates are really the only group that matter.
But it can be Florida or Michigan.
It’s Bharat, not Bharath. Sorry.
rahul: please stop it. obama’s pulling away and mccain is one intern away from disaster. what i need you to do is the continue attacking obama, so the race stays close enough that hillary can justify some dirty tricks. then she wins the nom, blacks bolt to the GOP, the dem base stays home, the VRWCV shows up in droves to finally defeat the clintons, and mccain wins.
but the way things are going we’re all going to be flying Che Guevara flags in November.
i mean, i’d attack obama myself but i just don’t have the heart. this guys scary talented. just look at the mush he’s made of the normally stoic razib.
Only the ones who have the sense to vote for the one who is/was inevitable ofcourse
That Times article would have made the NY post proud. Actually, on second thoughts, no. It didn’t have a good double-entendre in its title (John “Mack” Cain POW-WOWs!).
I thought that was the Reaganites?
automatic delegates. not super delegates.
ANNA: “Barack Wins Bharath”
Your catchy headline promised an astounding Barack win in some survey or straw poll of Indians in India. Now that would have been interesting, especially coming after his rant over outsourcing. Upon reading your post, though, I realized he won among Americans of Indian descent. So what else is new?
Anybody know which candidate the desis back in desh are favoring?
#11 xetra “It’s Bharat, not Bharath. Sorry.”
Even if you are from the South? Or would Bharath always mean the name, not the country.
17 · Floridian said
Awww, Floridian! I hate that I disappointed you of all people. Also, I thought they were just Americans, not necessarily brown ones. 😀
And I stand by my right to type Bharath, because my name is LatHa. Sorry.
I have a technical question: I see from the chart that A N N A posted that Dems abroad can use the Internet to vote. How do they manage authentication and anonymity for this voting? Also, is Internet voting allowed for the general elections, even for some categories of voters (say, military or international), and if so, how do they solve these problems?
17 · Floridian said
Shouldn’t your handle be FloriNdian? 🙂
As a FOB me thinks,
barath bharath bharahth barat borat = tomato tomatoe tamatar
19 · Rahul said
authentication! That’s voter suppresion! Don’t you know, rahul, that there’s been no documented case of fraud.
I did know that is the case for the friendly neighborhood poll booth, but is the same true for the intarwebs too? Are there a lot of poor black people voting on the Internet?
Since A N N A posted on the connection between Obama and the desh, I guess this is an appropriate time to mention that I just met Kal Penn today who came to my law school to talk about why he’s traveling around the country speaking at campuses in support of Obama. For the record, Penn seemed to be articulate, genuine and passionate when he answered questions from the audience about Obama’s policies and ideologies.
PS One slight negative–When I asked my question about the Patriot Employers plan to Penn (which I found out thanks to Vinod’s earlier post–thanks V!), he had no idea what I was talking about. It was instead answered by a girl who works for Obama’s campaign full-time, and even then, she didn’t really know the details. I didn’t really expect Penn to answer my question fully, but I was a bit surprised that he didn’t know about the proposed Act at all.
Actually, there are a few details about how Internet voting is managed here.
23 · Rahul said
I think there’s a lot of Culinary Worker Union members.
With the race tightening in Texas (a state that the Dems won’t win in November), after March 4, it too may be relegated to Mark Penn’s ever lenghthening list of states that don’t matter. Someone needs to tell this clown that even a potted palm will win against a Republican in NY and MA. That makes CA the only significant victory for Hillary so far.
The Clintons’ bag of dirty tricks is bottomless. Now that some Super Delegates are experiencing pangs of conscience and the memory of Democratic anger after Gore vs Bush, 2000 is flashing before their eyes, the Clintonistas are going after pledged delegates. Yes, these are delegates that Obama has already won in the primaries and caucuses.
12 Manju said
Don’t forget that now Fidel Castro may need a day job.
I went and asked a friend who’s a Democrat in New Zealand and he emailed me this reply:
Rahul, re: your “access to the internet” question and voting. I wasn’t abroad during the 2004 primary, but I was abroad during an election year in an area with little to no reliable electricity or telecommunications infrastructure. I also wasn’t particularly near a big city, although I suppose if there had been a voting outpost I would’ve made the 6 hour (roundtrip) shlep. I had to handwrite my ballot. A colleague was able to vote online. I don’t know how DA authenticate, but you file two registration forms — state secretaries of state authenticate your existence, and the federal government checks it against your tax returns.
Thanks for the explanations, Camille and sonal. For those who are curious, the reason I asked is that the use of cryptography for secure electronic voting is an active area of research interest, and something . This is not a trivial problem because there are several requirements you want to satisfy. For example, the scheme of using one-time identifiers issued by a central authority that sonal describes does not preclude malicious rigging by the central authority, since they are aware of all the issued identifiers (and it is impossible for observers to monitor an election on the internet to prevent ballot stuffing). There are obviously many more details and requirements – including squirrely ones such as the ability to give voters proof of whom they voted for so they can verify it, but without giving them the ability to show this proof to anybody else, as that would allow vote selling. Some of the work here is quite cool.
You call this disaster? I am now beginning to think that the Times is so mad about their Dem pick trailing in the race that they executed their master plan to try and make sure that McCain ties up the
Limbaugh-Ingraham raving lunaticrepublican opinion-maker support that he was sorely lacking.30 · Rahul said
yeah, u beat me 2 it. i’ve been hearing some dems, includeing obama himself, using some ageist code words to describe mccain, like on msnbc they where saying his attacks on obama are “impotent.” that line of attack now looks premature.
Maybe he should make Bob Dole his running mate.
31 · Manju said
you mean the like the mccain ejaculates? because of how old and decrepit he is?
33 · portmanteau said
c’mon, port…you know mccain always made sure his constituents came first, u gotta give him a hand for that.
32 · Rahul said
doles tired of being the 2nd banana
Just a nit-picky point: Democrats Abroad are represented by 22 delegates, but the delegates only get half a vote at the convention. I guess this way they can spread out their limited number of votes across more regions, or perhaps it’s just that since they can’t be bothered to actually live in America, as far as we’re concerned they’re only half-human.
Of these 22 delegates, eight are super delegates, nine are apportioned by the results of the primary, and the remaining five delegates are chosen at a convention in April.
Mac-can! Not saying from first hand experience..just a rumor in the lobby
20 · Rahul “Shouldn’t your handle be FloriNdian? :)”
Cute!
Rahul, your recent comments on SM are extremely troubling, at least to me. They are serious, a tad too researched and quite pedantic. Are you okay, son?
ANNA, I know about the “t” in the glorious South. But I was seriously asking our DBD friends if Bharath with the “t” would still be the country or would refer to the name (you know, Ram, Lakshman, Bharat, Shatrughan).
That’s enough derailing-of-the-thread from me. Have a nice weekend, y’all, and I hope all you Obama lovers had a great time Thursday night.
In the debate last night, Obama made the claim that the US soldiers are so poorly armed in Afghanistan that they have to steal weaponry from the Taliban to fight. What a silly thing to say. And yes, I do understand that he was restating something he heard from a Captain in Afghanistan. But its a one off incident and not emblematic of the weaponry situation of the troops in Afghanistan.
Yes, we can.
The M4 weapons system has had serious issues handling the fine quartz sand on the Afghanistan and Iraq battle grounds:
The military is in the process of evaluating replacements that use more reliable systems.
McCame…
M. Nam
But its a one off incident and not emblematic of the weaponry situation of the troops in Afghanistan.
I don’t think he was stating it as emblematic of the weaponry situation, rather, by the mere fact that it occurred… once even, is indicative of repercussions of gov’t, media, and national attention on Iraq, which as Richard Clark stated, was a goal of the Bush admin from Sept 12th, 2001.
Nothing can compare to Hillary’s weak jab of “change by xerox,” as if to imply that Obama has sat in a room and stolen every speech he ever made. It comes off as bitterness for losing much ground to him.
I think this is a really valid concern, and also extends to electronic voting (am I right?). I actually always wondered if anyone counted my overseas ballot anyway, and how they could ensure that I was the person I claimed to be. I suppose there are other, more effective ways to commit voter fraud, but it makes me scratch my head. I should clarify that the reason my colleague and I voted using different methods was also because we were voting in different states (CA and VA, respectively).
Paul, that sounds kind of suck (the delegate apportioning). I know the Republicans strongly encourage folks to vote through their respective state primaries. Do you know if the DA primary started as a way to ensure a vote for Americans permanently relocated overseas (i.e., those who may no longer have a state residence/affiliation)?
No doubt. According to the Clintons, Obama didn’t wait his turn. How dare he? He should know better than to cut in line.
She’s in a tricky place because the trite experience theme is the only thing that has traction with her supporters; yet, should she win the nomination, it’s that very theme that no legs against McCain. Check…mate?
Nothing can compare to Hillary’s weak jab of “change by xerox,” as if to imply that Obama has sat in a room and stolen every speech he ever made. It comes off as bitterness for losing much ground to him.
True. I think Hillary is finished and its time for all Hillary supporters including me to rally for Obama. According to SUSA, Obama has cut the lead in Ohio to about 8 points and is matching Hillary in Texas. Even if Hillary eeks out a win in both Ohio and Texas it wont be enough to catch Obama in the elected delegate count. Its time for Hillary to graciously bow out after the March 4th primary.
HRC ought to use all the dirty tricks that she has at this point in the race. Her run for president can never happen again, if she loses this nomination, unlike Obama.
Her run for president can never happen again, if she loses this nomination, unlike Obama.
I don’t know if I agree with that. I believe Obama’s popularity stems a great deal from people’s bitterness and dissatisfaction at the Bush admin. Without 8 years of Bush f*ckups, I dont think Obama would be as popular, Bush is essentially the reason why “change” is resonating so deeply with the voting blocks. In a way, Obama (at least thus far) is a great sprinter, and the clintons are long distance runners.
From an efficiency point of view, since it means the same thing, Bharat is more efficient than Bharath. You utilize less power by typing the keyboard one less time, utilize less muscular energy and thus reduce the greenhouse gases and entropy of the world if you do not type the extra ‘h’.
I am looking at her future run, for president, from a nomination perspective. Democrats are not voting for her as the Democratic alternative even after 8 years of Bush and Democrat wins for majority in the senate and the house. And you are right “Change” was a masterful strategy to neutralize HRC. That is why I do not see Democrats ever voting for her again as it would be like going back to a “style of politics” that they discarded. Also, I do not believe that the Democratic party cannot put better candidates than HRC in the future.
I did find one of the points raised by one of the CNN ‘experts’ interesting. On the question of whether Hillary has run out of ideas on how to sell herself besides the experience crap, he mentioned that she should try to sell herself as a ‘fighter’ who will fight till the last for bringing to the people what she has been claiming. She has that reputation of being a tough cookie and she could use it to her advantage.
Her last bit where she tried to be all sentimental and come across as genuine got on my nerves, but sadly that’s exactly what works on a lot of people.