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With fall upon us and the midterm elections 53 days away, we are in the home stretch! Soon, we’ll be able to cast our ballots and (hopefully!) take back control of Congress! Maybe you have seen our ads for votefromabroad.org on trams in Basel and Geneva or on billboards in Zurich. Maybe you have gotten a postcard from one of your fellow members, encouraging you to request your ballot. Or maybe you’ve heard us on the radio, seen us online here or here, or seen our ad in The Local, jointly financed by DACH, DA Global, and eight other member countries. Thank you, thank you, thank you, to our incredible volunteers, chapter leadership, and our national executive committee for making this critical outreach possible. Our goal in this final phase is to reach every American in Switzerland and encourage them to register to vote and cast their ballots. We hope you will join us to send postcards or call members encouraging them to vote, see below for more info. It’s all hands on deck time, and thankfully there is something everyone can do to help! If you have requested your ballot or voted, please let us know by responding to this email so we can update your profile and remove you from the list of members who require follow-up. We can’t do this important work without you! Thank you for your support and all you do to bring about a better future for Americans and the world. In solidarity, Katie Wright In this newsletter: Get Out The Vote Update
Here are some things you can do to GOTV from Switzerland: 1) DA Basel is doing voter registration awareness at Roche and Novartis on Monday, September 14. We need at least 12 volunteers to adequately cover all of the applicable transit stops. Anyone interested in volunteering that morning can RSVP here. 2) Global phonebanking campaigns began in August — your country needs YOU to help your fellow Americans abroad vote from Abroad. You can only vote once, but calling multiplies your vote and amplifies your voice, helps and empowers overseas voters to cast their one vote, helps make the USA a truly participatory democracy! In 2024, DA callers made 350,000+ calls and sent 300,000+ texts. Get trained to help Get Out the Vote via phonebanking – https://www.democratsabroad. 3) Do you have another idea to GOTV in Switzerland? Please share it with us by responding to this email! VFA Reminder
Best thing to do to protect your overseas vote? The most powerful voter protection step you can take is to send in an FPCA Ballot Request every year, and ask to receive your ballot by Email or Online! Worried about Voter Roll purges? Sending in an FPCA form makes you an "active voter" and clears up any flags on your voter registration that can happen if they think your address changed. It also re-registers you if you were actually purged. Worried about USPS possibly interfering with your ballot delivery? Ask for your ballot to be sent to you electronically, as overseas voters have the right to do -- cut out USPS as the middleman. Make a plan to vote! Once you get your ballot, prepare to vote and return it right away. Ballots go out on Sept 19 (45 days before the election.) Some states require that voted ballots be returned by postal mail - voters from those states should also cast and vote a Backup Ballot (FWAB).
If you are a U.S. citizen living abroad, using the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) is the absolute best way to request your ballot. While you can technically use your specific state’s standard absentee ballot form, the FPCA grants you specific, powerful legal protections under federal law that state forms do not.
Events may be added throughout the month, so check our Events Page or Google Calendar for additions! We encourage you to participate in any DA events globally and across Switzerland.
Introducing Event AssessmentsWe want to know what you think about the events we've had so that we can make future events better! If you have attended any of our events so far this year (in person or virtually), please click through to answer a few questions about them. Please go to our website for more information on upcoming events, how to become a volunteer, and how to become a sustaining donor. DA Switzerland https://www.democratsabroad.
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TURN ANXIETY INTO ACTION!
