Guam, Birthplace of American Democracy

Richard Winger of Ballot Access News has the initial results from Guam, where voters cast utterly meaningless (to the outcome, not to democracy!) presidential ballots.

Barack Obama (D) - 8796
John McCain (R) - 5355
Bob Barr (L) - 97

As Winger notes, this represents a mini-surge in Libertarian support from 2004: Barr's 0.7 percent of the vote is much better than Michael Badnarik's 0.2 percent. Obama is leading McCain 61.7 percent to 37.6 percent, a big improvement for the Democrats, who lost nearly 2-1 here in 2004. I think Wolf Blitzer can take the rest of the day off.

Comments

[Nigel Watt]

Is there even a Guam LP chapter? If not, why did the Barr campaign spend money getting on the ballot?

[Sparky]

As goes Guam, so goes the nation. Or something.

[Smappy]

As goes Guam, so goes the nation. Or something.

Now, now, don't mock. Chamarros are red-bleeding, these-colors-don't-run-ing, God-bless-Amurica-ing patriots just like you and me.

[Lamar]

Little known fact: "Guam" spelled backwards is "Maug"

[Bingo]

Guam also contains 4/5 letters of KMW's pre-hyphen name. Also, it didn't have any snakes until it was settled and then they snuck in on a ship and destroyed the local fauna. Sort of a reverse-St-Patrick thing.

[Kolohe]

Is there even a Guam LP chapter?

Hitting 'I'm feeling lucky' when googling for "guam libertarian party" gets you, no kidding,

DONDEROOOOOOO!

Now, now, don't mock. Chamarros are red-bleeding, these-colors-don't-run-ing, God-bless-Amurica-ing patriots just like you and me.

When you've actually been invaded in living memory, you tend to take patriotism a little more seriously.

[Lefiti]

Barr is getting o.7 percent! That's some sort of libertarian record, isn't it? Jesus, talk about a surge. All this hard educational work is paying off. Donate now!

[Pro Libertate]

"Mit der Dummheit k?mpfen G?tter selbst vergebens."

[The Angry Optimist]

oh, Edward / Lefiti, I really missed you. Let's never be apart again.

[BakedPenguin]

Barr is getting o.7 percent!

Which is close to 10 times the percentage of people here who give a shit what you think, yet you keep posting. But your comments will be relevant to us real soon! Keep posting!

[Hacha Cha]

ok but what about Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Virgin Islands?

[Guy Montag]

The 14,248 votes of Guam are not being counted!?!?! THE ELECTION FRAUD HAS BEGUN!

Everybody knows that Guam is one of the 57 States. EVERYBODY!

[Brandybuck]

0.7% of the vote? Wow! I guess some libertarians didn't get the memo that they're obligated to vote for Obama to punish Bush.

I'm expecting this year to be one of the worse showings for Libertarians in decades. A quarter of the party bailed on the Barr nomination, another quarter are fervant Obamaniacs, and another quarter are the traditional "I refuse to vote on moral grounds" contigent. Not much hope to break the 1% barrier.

[The Angry Optimist]

If you're in the LP and you don't vote, you're an idiot.

[Gabe]

Brandybuck,
I've voted LP the last 4 presidential elctions(5 now)...I thought I was gonna not support Barr, due to my real dislike of him...but I voted for him anyway...so i wouldn't be surprised if his #'s are still better than Badnarik's....If you could actually count the # of people who are gonna write in Ron Paul I bet the Paul + Barr total will be over 1%.

[The Democratic Republican]

I agree with Brandybuck's assessment.

[Craig]

You can count the total write-ins for Ron Paul, but you will have to wait a few days or weeks until all the votes are counted. (I wrote him in this morning in California, where he is a qualified write-in. Only 7 letters -- no problem!)

It will be interesting to see how many votes Ron Paul gets in Montana and Louisiana, where he is on the ballot.

[Ben]

Wow, when are going to get the results from Chechnya? Man, talk about irrelevant.