In the world: Sanders 23,779 – Clinton 10,689
Sanders wins Panama with more than 71%
Barring any challenges — and as in 2008 the Dominican Republic totals are large and anomalous, so that the Sanders campaign may yet challenge them — Bernie Sanders has won the Democrats Abroad Global Presidential Primary with 68.79 percent of the vote as against Hillary Clinton’s 30.92. According to official figures, Sanders beat Clinton everywhere except for Singapore, Nigeria and the Dominican Republic. It was a record turnout for a DA primary, both worldwide and in Panama. In Panama, turnout was about one-third of Democrats Abroad members, the uncertainty being that people die or move away without local Democrats being notified so there are always a few names on the membership list that need to be removed at any given time. In December DA Panama submitted a “cleaned up” list of jmust under 300 members, and as of the March 1-8 voting that membership roll had been increased to about 440.
By federal law US citizens living abroad have a right to vote in the states where they are from, or in the case of young Americans who have not lived in the USA, generally in the state where their parents are from. Democrats Abroad holds a primary according to Democratic Party rules, and sends a delegation to the Democratic Convention whose pledged delegates are determined by the global primary results. But US voters living abroad can also opt to vote in their home states’ primaries instead of the DA primary. It should be expected that there will be some votes cast in the April 19 New York Primary out of Panama given the historic relationship between the Afro-Panamanian community and Brooklyn.
While Democrats ran the DA primary, in November the voting is by absentee ballot to the states and there is no count by country about how Americans living abroad voted. To vote absentee in the USA from abroad, US federal law requires people to re-register every year. IF one only votes for federal offices — President of the United States, US Senator and US Representative — by federal law that does not make a person a citizen of the state in which she or he votes for tax purposes. However, voting for state and local offices or ballot issues may be taken by a state as evidence of state citizenship for tax purposes.
To US citizens to get registered to vote from abroad, there are three major websites through which one might seek assistance: Vote from Abroad, the Federal Voting Assistance Program and the Overseas Vote Foundation.
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