Jason Palmer wins the vote in Am Samoa but splits the delegates

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Major newspapers around the world — everywhere from The Guardian in Great Britain to Al Jazeera in the Middle East to the New York Times — jumped on the election night story on Tuesday that President Joe Biden was sweeping every Democratic contest on Super Tuesday — except for American Samoa.

Associated Press reported, “He [Pres. Biden] fell short there to a previously unknown candidate named Jason Palmer. Out of 91 ballots cast in the territory’s caucus, Palmer won 51 and Biden won 40, according to the local Democratic Party.

“I found out that I had won because my phone started blowing up with friends and campaign staffers texting me,” Palmer said in an interview late Tuesday.

Palmer, 52, told the AP he never visited the territory before the caucus.

“I have been campaigning remotely, doing Zoom town halls, talking to people, listening to them about their concerns and what matters to them,” he said.

On the day before the caucus, Palmer posted on X that “Washington D.C. is long overdue for a president who will be an advocate for American Samoa.” His account includes pictures of young people holding homemade campaign signs.

American Samoa has been the site of unlikely victories before. During the 2020 Democratic primaries, billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s only win came in the territory.

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But by 12:25 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, Associated Press reported that party officials in Pago Pago corrected their own arithmetic. Mr. Biden had not, in fact, lost. He had managed a tie, securing three of the territory’s six delegates — one more than the party had initially reported.

There was no issue with the ballot counting: Jason Palmer, a largely unknown entrepreneur from Maryland who had campaigned on a promise to improve the Samoan education system, received 51 votes to Mr. Biden’s 40.

The problem was a rounding error: Mr. Palmer’s 56 percent share amounted to 3.4 delegates, but was incorrectly rounded up to four. Mr. Biden’s 44 percent share amounted to 2.6 delegates, but was incorrectly rounded down to two. Dean Phillips, the Minnesota congressman, was the only other Democrat who appeared on ballots, but won neither any delegates nor any votes. (The initial results and delegate allocation were confirmed by The Associated Press.)

In a statement with the corrected numbers, Andrew Berquist, a national committeeman, said simply, “We have amended our delegate count, due to a calculation error. Remainder of the results are the same.”

While the error may have cost Mr. Palmer a clean win, his vote tally still did come as a surprise. But Democrats in American Samoa have a history of delivering unexpected results, even when vote counting goes according to plan. In 2016, a majority of caucus goers cast ballots for uncommitted delegates rather than for Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. And in 2020, Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, won there, giving him the only victory in his campaign.

Mr. Palmer was the only Democrat to campaign there, buying ads from local media, hosting virtual town-hall events and employing local staff.

According to reports from local residents, candidate Palmer campaigned in the territory on three issues: improved access to health care, additional educational resources and aggressive efforts to curb the effects of climate change. He credits his American Samoa campaign team of just three employees for helping him connect with residents.