Clinton, Obama Get Exact Number of Votes in Syracuse

Feb. 8, 2008— -- The race to become the Democratic Party's presidential nominee is so close that no one is quite sure who is actually in the lead. Nowhere is that truer than in Syracuse, N.Y., where Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., have, so far, split the vote perfectly evenly following Tuesday's primary.

Obama and Clinton each received the same number of votes -- 6,001, according to county election officials.

"Theoretically, the chance of a tie between Clinton and Obama in a sample of 12,346 randomly selected NY democratic voters is almost impossible," said Hyune-Ju Kim, a statistician and mathematics professor at Syracuse University.

Kim said there was about 0.0036 chance of the polls resulting in a tie in a random sample of 12,346 selected from a place like Syracuse.

A total of 12,346 votes were cast for Democrats in Syracuse. Though Clinton and Obama are the only Democrats remaining in the race, voters cast ballots for four of the candidates who had already dropped out by Super Tuesday: John Edwards received 114 votes; Dennis Kucinich, 113; Bill Richardson, 90; and Joe Biden, 27.

"At first blush it looks like we have a dead heat," said Ed Ryan, commissioner of the Onondaga County Board of Elections.

Ryan said the current split remains an unofficial figure, until the numbers can be recounted and absentee ballots and affidavits -- votes cast by people claiming to be registered but who did not appear on the rolls -- can be verified and tabulated.

"Once everything is recounted and added together, it will still remain an extremely close race," he said.

But if statisticians and election officials are surprised by the equitable outcome, Syracuse's citizens saw it coming.

"When people come in here and talk about the elections, they're pretty much split down the middle just like when they voted," said Charleston Collins, owner of Collins Barber and Beauty Shop in Syracuse.

"It is definitely interesting, but it's just the way people have been talking about it, so I'm not too surprised," he said. "A lot of people were going back and forth between the two down to the last minute, but it seems to me like the older generation likes Hillary."