It seems that the good people of Guam had better things to do today than vote in the Democratic Party primary/caucus.

Out of approximately 55,000 registered voters, only 4,521 people voted. The winner? Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton by a grand total of seven votes.

Voting is a very touchy issue in Guam. In yet another bizarre footnote to our election process, the citizens of Guam can vote in the Democratic Primary, but they are not allowed to vote in the general election.

Even stranger, Guam gets to send 13 people to Denver for the convention. Five of them are Superdelegates (Guam gets five Superdelegates???). The other eight get a total of four votes. So you have a combination of Superdelegates and Semi-delegates.

To get these 4,500 people to vote Obama and Clinton spent a small fortune in television ads. Flooding the airwaves, they covered pretty much the same territory, making the exact same promises. The biggest promise? Making sure that Guamanians can vote in the next presidential election.

Apparently, it wasn’t just apathy that kept all but 4,500 residents from voting.

It seems that yesterday’s voting coincided with one of the island’s biggest annual events, the Kantan Minagof Song Festival. According to the Guam Visitors Bureau, “the public is encouraged to participate for prizes in Talaya fishnet throwing, Coconut Husking and Grating, and Tuba Drinking.”

While Tuba Drinking evoked images of inebriated brass bands, it turns out that tuba is a potent alcoholic drink made from the sap of coconut trees. Bombed on tuba, the Guamanians weren’t thinking about Reverend Wright, universal health-care or the state of affairs in Iraq. They were too busy tossing fishing nets, husking coconuts and getting blasted to worry about such mundane matters.

But the Guamanians could raise their glasses and drink to democracy. They might not have too many voters, but at least their votes counted. They’ll have more votes in Denver than Florida or Michigan.  

Guam… this Tuba’s for you!