Democrats Abroad primary, 2016 facts for kids
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The 2016 Democratic Party global presidential primary for Democrats Abroad was a special election held from March 1 to March 8, 2016. It allowed American citizens living outside the United States to help choose who would run for president.
In the United States, political parties hold "primaries" or "caucuses" to pick their best candidate for president. This primary was for the Democratic Party.
People could vote by email, fax, or mail starting on January 11, and in person at special voting centers.
Voters could only vote once for a presidential candidate. They could either vote in this Democrats Abroad primary or in their home state's primary. However, they could still vote in their home state for other elections, like for the United States Senate or United States House of Representatives.
In the end, Bernie Sanders won this primary. He received 69% of the votes, while Hillary Clinton received 31%. Sanders won in 44 out of 45 international cities where votes were counted.
How the Voting Worked
Many cities around the world hosted special "walk-in Voting Centers." These were places where Americans living abroad could go in person to cast their votes. A list of these locations and their opening hours was made available in February.
The very first votes were cast in Wellington, New Zealand. This happened at midnight on March 1, which is known as Super Tuesday in the US election calendar.
Provisional Results (Early Counts)
"Provisional results" were the first counts of votes from the walk-in voting centers. These early numbers did not include votes sent by mail, fax, or email.
The early results showed that Bernie Sanders was leading in most locations. For example, in cities like Tokyo, Japan, and Edinburgh, United Kingdom, Sanders received a much higher percentage of votes than Hillary Clinton. Even in places like London, which had a large number of voters, Sanders still won more votes.
Final Results
The final results for the Democrats Abroad global presidential primary were announced on March 21. These results included all votes, whether cast in person or by mail.
| Key: | Withdrew prior to contest |
| Democrats Abroad global presidential primary, 2016 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Estimated delegates | Actual delegate votes | |||
| Pledged | Unpledged | Total | |||||
| Bernie Sanders | 23,779 | 68.79% | 9 | ||||
| Hillary Clinton | 10,689 | 30.92% | 4 | ||||
| Uncommitted | 75 | 0.2% | |||||
| Martin O'Malley | 21 | 0.06% | |||||
| Rocky De La Fuente | 6 | 0.02% | |||||
| Total: | 34,570 | 100% | 13 | 8 | 21 | 17 | |
As you can see from the table, Bernie Sanders received the most votes, with 23,779 votes. This was 68.79% of all votes cast. Hillary Clinton came in second with 10,689 votes, or 30.92%.
The primary also helped decide how many "delegates" each candidate would get. Delegates are like representatives who vote for a candidate at the party's national convention. Sanders earned 9 pledged delegates, and Clinton earned 4. In total, 21 delegates were decided by this primary.
