Guest post by Scan
It really doesn't get any closer.
Uncertified figures from the Democrat nominating committee show that Senator Barack Obama won the island's caucus by seven votes. Obama had been leading Senator Hillary Clinton by seven percentage points leading into the results of Dededo, which had the largest turnout on Guam.
Josh Tenorio from the Obama camp said he is concerned about the results, particularly because of the large number of spoiled ballots. Both he and Clinton representative Rena Borja are confident the nominating committee will take that into consideration before certifying the results.
Seven votes! And with all the spoiled ballots… I can't even say it's clear who the actual winner should be. One thing is for sure, though. Despite being heavily outspent by an opponent who was apparently favored to win, Hillary Clinton did extremely well. Again. The four delegates will be split evenly among the two candidates.
Clinton released this statement today:
While our campaign was dramatically outspent, we had an impressive grassroots-oriented effort.
…I am grateful to the many people of Guam who voted for me and worked so hard to make today a success. I want to congratulate Senator Obama for running a vigorous campaign in Guam and look forward to our next contests in Indiana and North Carolina.
This is an impressive showing in the run-up to Tuesday.
UPDATE: It's not over!
The Democrat Party Nominating Committee said officials will look over the large amount of “spoiled ballots” in the coming days. At issue is the small margin of victory of Senator Barack Obama. He beat his rival, Senator Hillary Clinton by 7 votes, but well over 500 ballots were deemed invalid during the tabulation process.
Herbie Perez, chairman of the nominating committee, said she will not certify the results because the Committee needs to ensure that all the uncounted ballots were properly identified as “spoiled.”
Consider this your late-night Guam celebration open thread.
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