~by Denise O’Brien Van, special to GreeneCountyNewsOnline
More than 200 Democrats from Jefferson’s three precincts showed up Monday evening at Greene County High School to help begin the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
The majority of Democrats in all three precincts went for Hillary Clinton. Bernie Sanders made a good showing. Martin O’Malley didn’t get one delegate to the Democrats’ county convention which names delegates to the state convention, where delegates to the July National Democratic Convention will be chosen.
O’Malley had supporters, but the process requires candidates have at least 15 percent of the vote of those present to be viable. In the case of Jefferson’s second precinct, five people opting for O’Malley sat in a corner of the media center, not enough to be viable in the process to select a delegate. Three O’Malley supporters moved to the Clinton and Sanders areas, and two sat tight.
The rather complicated Democratic Party delegate selection process took about an hour, and those attended were in good humor.
In all, Clinton won 19 delegates (59 percent). Sanders’ delegates totaled 13 (41 percent).
Results:
Jefferson Precinct 1: Clinton 5 delegates / Sanders 4 delegates
Jefferson Precinct 2: Clinton 7 delegates / Sanders 3 delegates
Jefferson Precinct 3: Clinton 7 delegates / Sanders 6 delegates
Greene County results, including the central, north, east and west showed Clinton with 53.8 percent of the delegates and Sanders with 46.2 percent. O’Malley was not viable in any of the precincts.
