The Wall Street Journal-20080206-Campaign -08- Super Tuesday- Overseas- Democrats Cast Their Vote

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Campaign '08: Super Tuesday: Overseas, Democrats Cast Their Vote

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LONDON -- So many Americans turned up to vote in the Democrats Abroad primary that the crowd became a fire hazard and the organizers had to ask stragglers to leave.

Half an hour before the polls closed here last night, turnout at the Victorian-era public hall just north of Hyde Park was approaching 2,000 people, or triple the number that showed up to vote in the 2004 primary, said Dan Rivkin, a spokesman for Democrats Abroad.

Americans living overseas are a small voting bloc. Democrats Abroad will send 22 delegates to the convention, based on the results of tonight's voting in polling stations in 35 countries world-wide, from Indonesia to France. That gives Democrats Abroad as many delegates as New Hampshire, Mr. Rivkin said, though because of a strange quirk in the rules those delegates have only half a vote each, for a total of 11 votes. "We're like the 51st state," Mr. Rivkin said proudly.

Republicans living overseas don't have a special primary; they have to cast absentee ballots in their home states.

Among the voters turning up in London was Carol Patterson, a 42- year-old architect from New York who has lived abroad for about eight years, in Holland and now London. "I almost started crying when I came in here," she said, sipping wine and watching the crowd after voting for Sen. Hillary Clinton. "To be with everyone makes you feel part of it."

Ms. Patterson and everyone else signed and dated their blue paper ballots before lining up to cast them in the appropriate box on stage, for all the room to see. Every time someone dropped a ballot in the box for Sen. Barack Obama, supporters of the Illinois senator let out a cheer. Mrs. Clinton's backers paraded around with large silver balloons spelling out H-I-L-L-A-R-Y. At one point, Mr. Obama appeared to be winning, with more blue ballots piled up in his clear plastic box than in Mrs. Clinton's. Results of the global Democrats Abroad primary will be announced Feb. 21.

A bar at the back of the hall sold beer, wine and potato chips. American students from the London School of Economics sold chocolate- chip cookies to raise money for their get-out-the-vote fund. Each cookie had a small photo of Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Obama stuck to the top with white frosting.

Sharon Bowlus, 62, said she has lived overseas for 34 years but came out to support Mrs. Clinton because she likes her health-care policies. "Not that I'll ever benefit from them, because I'll probably stay here," she added.