Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico - The Costa Banderas chapter of Democrats Abroad held a Global Presidential primary at voting centers established on March 1 and 3 at the International Friendship Club in Puerto Vallarta. The primary took place online as well from March 1 through 8th.

Mexico's official countrywide results will be communicated as soon as they are tallied and compiled. Preliminary results show Bernie Sanders with 54.7% of the vote to Hillary Clinton's 45.3%. However, those results are from votes made at voting centers only and not a full tabulation of votes made online as well as in person.

Voting centers were staffed around the world in 112 cities, at 120 distinct sites, with a total number of 136 voting center dates. We have members in every single country in the world, and we have organized country committees in 53 countries.

Democrats Abroad is regarded as the 12th biggest "state" for delegates since more than 8.7 million Americans live abroad (according to the U.S. State Department).

Our Democrats Abroad Primary, held between March 1 and 8, is not a winner-take-all primary. We hold our Global Presidential Primary to ask the large number of Democrats living abroad to tell us their preferences among the Democratic candidates for president. Democrats Abroad then calculates those results as percentages.

For example, in 2008, Barack Obama received 66% of our vote while Hillary Clinton received 33%. We then selected our Delegates to the National Convention according to those results in our Global Presidential Primary, i.e., 66% of our Delegates were assigned to then-candidate Obama while 33% were assigned to then-candidate Clinton. We are required to award Delegates only to those candidates who receive at least 15% of the votes in our Global Presidential Primary.

Democrats Abroad will send a total of 21 delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on July 25-28, 2016. The thirteen elected delegates will be pledged to a candidate. Eight more of these delegates will be Democrats Abroad's members on the Democratic National Committee. These eight 'superdelegates' each have half a vote at the convention, therefore giving Democrats Abroad a total of 17 votes at the convention.

For more information, contact your local Democrats Abroad chapter here in Puerto Vallarta at tjensen1942(at)hotmail.com. Also, check our Democrats Abroad Facebook page and website for ongoing election information.