For the first time ever, U.S. citizens from Tamarindo to Timbuktu will have a chance to vote in February in an online Global Primary to choose the Democratic nominee for president, according to international organization Democrats Abroad.

The Global Primary also provides an opportunity to vote by mail, fax or in-person in Costa Rica.

In the Democratic Party's eyes, citizens living overseas are an important voter bloc – enough so that the political party calls ex-pats the “51st State,” Willy Piessens, co-chair of the Democrats Abroad's voter services committee, told The Tico Times.

While primary election registration rules may vary from state to state, U.S. citizens living in Costa Rica also make up a small but growing part of that borderless U.S. state.

Piessens, who for five years has volunteered to get U.S. citizens to register to vote “colorblind” to which party they register with, added that the U.S. Republican Party has not yet designated such status to its ex-pat constituents.

To participate, voters must either be a member of Democrats Abroad or join by Jan. 31, which can be done at the Web site www.VoteFromAbroad.org.

Democrats in San José can vote in person on Feb. 5 at the Democrats Abroad's drop-in voting center at the Aurola Holiday Inn from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Voters should bring their U.S. passports or other proof of U.S. citizenship and voting address (where registered or lived most recently) in the United States.

Global primary voting, however, remarked Piessens, does not mean you can automatically vote in the Nov. 4 presidential election. Ex-pats must still register to receive an absentee ballot, the application forms for which can also be found at the aforementioned Web site.