Democrats Abroad began voting today, starting in the Pacific and Far Eastern timezones. It's a global primary with 22 delegates (equal to 11 full delegate votes) at stake, and for the first time overseas Democrats can vote by mail, fax, Internet, or in-person.
Japanese broadcaster NHK is conducting an exit poll at today's in-person voting center in Tokyo. As of 4 pm local time, Obama is leading Clinton there by about a 9 to 1 ratio.
Other countries in the far eastern timezones may have in-person voting today, but NHK may be the first to have a "public" exit poll. It's a very simple system: as I left the polling place, an NHK representative asked me whom I voted for. He would then place a blue sticker in the Obama column or a red sticker in the Clinton column on a posterboard, complete with each candidate's photo up top. You could see exactly how each candidate is doing, and that's how I could tell it's running about 9 to 1 for Obama. NHK tends to be old school -- no need for fancy chyrons -- so I expect they'll just point a camera at the posterboard when the time comes for the next newscast.
Polls close in Tokyo at 9 pm local time (7 am New York time). Results will be known to the media within an hour (before 8 am New York time), and I suspect they'll be posted to www.demsjapan.jp. I would also watch NHK's web site since they may post results there.
There's an extremely long list of caveats about this exit poll. In particular, it only represents Tokyo's in-person voting, so (to say the least) it's an extremely limited sample. Think of it as like Dixville Notch: fun but not by any means conclusive.
Unless the results are similarly overwhelming, there really won't be a good way to determine the winner of the Global Primary until Internet voting ends on February 12th. Final results won't be known until toward the end of February, when deadlines pass for mail-in votes. So Democrats Abroad will report both the first and last actual vote tallies for Super Tuesday.
Other Democrats Abroad diaries here:
- ... I just voted in Tokyo
- Obama Cleans Up in First Super Tuesday Voting (Indonesia)