6,800 Americans living abroad registered to vote as a result of the Sept. 5 event which also drew an audience of 33,000 and raised $90,000
Amsterdam, the Netherlands – September 16, 2024 – Democrats Abroad, the official Democratic Party organization serving millions of Americans who live outside the United States, announced today that its Americans Abroad for Harris-Walz mega-zoom event drew 33,000 unique viewers, raised $90,000, and, most importantly, led directly to 6,800 voter registrations of Americans currently living, working, studying, or serving overseas. The first of the worldwide mega-zooms to focus on voting by Americans outside the United States, it featured Lynda Carter, Alfre Woodard, Jane Fonda, Kyra Sedgwick, Nancy Pelosi, Cory Booker, and other celebrities, politicians, pundits, students and Americans all over the world.
The full Americans Abroad for Harris-Walz event can be viewed on the Democrats Abroad YouTube channel here. The event page with speaker information can be found here.
“There are more than 6.5 million Americans who live, study, work or serve outside the country and have the right to vote back home,” said Bruce Heyman, former U.S. Ambassador to Canada “Yet, many Americans abroad don’t know that they have the right to vote or how to vote while overseas. The Americans Abroad for Harris-Walz event marked the homestretch of our campaign to generate awareness of voting rights of Americans abroad, the process to vote while abroad and the critical role these voters have in determining election outcomes. Our goal was to energize American voters around the world. We certainly accomplished that, but there is more work to do.”
U.S. citizens abroad have historically low voting rates. In 2020, the turnout for voters abroad was 14%. The low turnout is surprising since political policy in the United States can obviously have major consequences for Americans who live internationally. Many Americans living outside the United States do not know they have a federally protected right to vote, whether they are abroad for personal or professional reasons. The 1986 Uniformed and Overseas Citizen Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) protects the right to vote for U.S. civilians and members of the military who register as abroad voters. The law guarantees them their ballots 45-days in advance, protects them from voter purging, and more. State-by-state information about voting while residing outside the United States can be found at VoteFromAbroad.org.
Abroad voters have been the margin of victory in tightly contested Presidential, Senate and Gubernatorial elections in North Carolina and New Hampshire in 2016 and Georgia and Arizona in 2020.
“Americans Abroad play a critical role in U.S. elections, especially since half of them vote in battleground states,” said Martha McDevitt-Pugh, International Chair of Democrats Abroad. “Accessing your voting rights as an American Abroad is especially important this year when states like Texas are purging voter rolls, North Carolina is sending absentee ballots out late, and the Georgia Board of Elections is continuing efforts to try to disenfranchise voters.”
To cast their ballots, Americans voting from abroad must first register as an abroad voter, then follow the requirements of the state where they are registered to vote. While some states accept ballots electronically, most require physical ballots to be received by election officials on or before Election Day. Americans Abroad can get voting information, and assistance on filling out and submitting each state’s ballot at VoteFromAbroad.org
About Democrats Abroad
Democrats Abroad (@DemsAbroad) is the official Democratic Party organization serving the millions of Americans living outside the United States. The organization is a 100% volunteer-run organization, with active chapters across six continents and members who vote in every U.S. state and congressional district. Its goal is to give Americans abroad a voice in the United States government. The organization helps Americans abroad vote in U.S. elections, protects the right to vote for Americans abroad, works with US government officials and elected representatives to advocate for issues that concern Americans abroad, builds communities of like-minded Americans around the world, and helps elect Democrats in every U. S. Congressional district.
For more information contact: [email protected]
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