Liberty in America
columnist: rtbohan

Topic: Presidential Campaign 2008
In Case You Missed It: The Guam Primary

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Maybe you have been enthralled by the run up to Indiana and North Carolina. Bot Guam made its decision Saturday, more of less.

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by rtbohan
(Libertarian)
Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama faced each other Saturday in the Guam caucuses. The voting was heated and close, and the result was a draw.

Why, you may ask yourself, is Guam having a caucus? Because, although it is not a state and its people have no vote in the Presidential election or in the Congress the Denocratic and Republican parties have decided to give them a vote in the nomination for President. And some five thousand people showed up to vote in the caucuses.

Because of the excitement of the race, the party allowed same day registration, with or without formal identification. Some of these new voters may have wandered into more than one of the twenty-one districts to vote since it was possible to give false information in registering.

And a good many of the voters must have been voting for the first time, since party officials announced that 500 of the ballots were spoiled or invalid. The outcome of the race was either a narrow victory for Senator Obama (the official count was 2264 to 2257) or a draw (each candidate was awarded two of Guam's four deleegates.

According to the Pacific Daily news,(www.guampdn.com)  one Clinton supported demanded a recount. He was Joseph Arturo Cameron, who had run for chairman of the Democratic Party of Guam and been badly defeated.  He said that he was not requesting the recount as a candidate but as a long time registered voter.  He objected to the same day registration, the lack of official identiciation, and the possibilityof multiple voting.  He insisted that all of the spoiled ballots be recounted as well.

The Clinton campaign disclaimed any interest in a recount.  The reason given was that it would take a margin of at least five hunred votes the change the distribution of delegates and it was not worth the effort.

There is no question that something shady was going on, but who was behind it is not clear, and since nobody seems to have benefitted, perhaps it can be written off to the dangers of democracy.  Obama, who had a two to one lead in all the polls before the election was held to a tie.  Cinton madte made no inroads in Obama's delegate lead and lost the popular vote, such as it was.

Maybe things will go better for one or both of the candidates in Indiana and North Carolina 

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2008 rtbohan, all rights reserved.
Published: Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Last modified: Tuesday, May 6, 2008

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