August 2021 Elections by State

For more information and links to the specific state elections pages, go to Ballotpedia.

Alabama

• Birmingham Municipal Election
  August 24, 2021

Arizona

• Tucson Municipal Primary Election
  August 3, 2021

Connecticut

• State Senate District 36 Special Election
  August 17, 2021

Florida

• St. Petersburg Municipal Primary Election
  August 24, 2021

Kansas

• Topeka and Wichita Primary Elections
  August 3, 2021

Michigan

• Detroit, Lansing, and State Senate Districts 8 & 28 Primary Elections
  August 3, 2021

Missouri

• St. Louis Community College District Special Election
  August 3, 2021

Montana

• Paradise • Recall election seeking to remove 2 of the 5 members of the Sanders County Sewer District
  August 24, 2021

Ohio

• 11th and 15th Congressional Districts Special Primary Elections
  August 3, 2021

Washington

• Primary Election
  August 3, 2021

Wisconsin

• Dane County Board of Supervisors District 20 Special General Election
  August 10, 2021

Are there issues you would like to see discussed within Dems Abroad Switzerland? Do you have an idea for an event or political action we can take?

If so, we want to hear about it!

Schedule a meeting with Eric (our Chair) or Liz (our Vice Chair) via Calendly for an online chat. We want to make sure that we are taking our group in the direction our members are wanting to go.

We want to know what you think about the events we've had so that we can make future events better!

We have created a WhatsApp group specifically for event posts and reminders. Want to be sure you never miss an event? Join here!

Note that by joining a WhatsApp group, other group members will be able to see any information shared in your WhatsApp profile.

On Sunday, 14 March, Democrats Abroad Switzerland held our 2021 Annual General Meeting, including elections for our 2021-23 leaders!

Say "Hello!" to our new ExCom!

We are already working on plans for engaging with you, our members, as well as ways to reach out to other US citizens living in Switzerland. We want to hear from you and what you care about, so please get in touch!

In The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander argues that, “An extraordinary percentage of Black men in the United States are legally barred from voting today, just as they have throughout most of American history.” Throughout Alexander’s book, she explains how incarceration is the tool used to disenfranchise formerly imprisoned voters and that a racist lawmaking and penal system in the United States replaced Jim Crow laws as the mechanism to do so. 

In July 2021, Democrats Abroad Switzerland - Basel will host an online letter and postcard writing solidarity action to support those who are currently incarcerated in Virginia and Florida--two states where voting rights can be restored to incarcerated individuals upon their release from prison. 

During the letter and postcard writing solidarity action, 20 minutes of instruction and guidance will be provided to help you write voting rights-based content to a currently incarcerated person. The action comes from @prisonculture’s 9 Solidarity Commitments to/with Incarcerated People for 2021. The 20-minute instruction will be recorded, and will be shared upon request.

To learn more about how justice reform emanates from ideas in Alexander’s The New Jim Crow and aligns with the Black Lives Matter movement, please see these resources about

• Mass Incarceration and Criminalization or Incarcerated Women and Girls from The Sentencing Project  (h/t @prisonculture)
• Black Lives Matter Movement by its founders: Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi
  • Garza’s “A Herstory of the Black Lives Matter Movement” from The Feminist Wire;
  • Garza, Cullors, and Tometi’s “Black Lives Matter Founders Describe 'Paradigm Shift' In The Movement” from NPR
• Black Lives Matter Syllabus by Frank Leon Roberts
  • Roberts’s “5 Ways of Understanding Black Lives Matter” on YouTube
• Voting Rights and Restoration  (h/t Ibram X. Kendi)
  • Ari Berman’s Give Us the Ballot (h/t Ibram X. Kendi)
  • Carol Anderson’s One Person, No Vote (h/t Ibram X. Kendi)

Other resources: You can design, write, and send postcards using the Swiss Post PostCard Creator App, available on the App Store and Google Play.

In preparation for our event on Juneteenth, Jazzmin Dian Moore has recorded this video explaining some of the historical significance of Juneteenth as well as introducing the Mandela in Chicago documentary we will be discussing.

Have you been wondering how Democrats Abroad Switzerland fits into the overall Democrats Abroad structure? Have you wondered who you should talk to about an event idea, issue, or question? Hopefully these charts will help!

RESOLUTION BY THE DPCA EXCOM

March 26, 2021

1. Whereas the COVID-19 pandemic has infected nearly 120 million people and caused over 2.6 million deaths worldwide, and
   
   
2. Whereas many Americans live in nations which may not readily be able to provide vaccinations to all people within their boundaries or which may limit vaccine availability based on nationality, cost or other factors, thereby resulting in many Americans living overseas remaining unvaccinated, and
   
   
3. Whereas this situation may also reduce the ability of American citizens to travel freely to the United States on business or due to family emergencies,
   
   
4. Whereas protection for Americans is linked to immunizations worldwide to end the spread and mutation of the COVID-19 virus, 
   
   
5. Therefore Democrats Abroad calls on President Biden and Congress to include all Americans in his commitment, regardless of where they reside, and to empower and direct the Departments of State and of Health and Human Services to cooperate with the CDC, vaccine manufacturers, and public health authorities worldwide to provide, or ensure the availability of, vaccinations for all Americans abroad, and to support the global availability of adequate vaccine supplies as a critical step in ending the pandemic worldwide.
   
   
6. Therefore, the DPCA ExCom commits volunteer resources and our organization to making the appropriate authorities in the US government aware of the pressing needs for this action, and to keep our members informed of our actions.

This year the DACH Women’s Caucus will focus on three areas:

1. Opportunity alerts for members to contact lawmakers in support of legislation for women’s rights and equal opportunity. For example, in March the House removed the deadline for ERA passage and 12 states still need to ratify the bill.
2. Strengthening our sisterhood by aligning with initiatives driven by the DA Global Women’s Caucus as well as women’s organizations such as Supermajority and Emerge.
3. Informing ourselves about issues critical to women’s well-being (equal pay, violence against women, childcare, reproductive health, climate action).

If you are interested in getting involved or learning more, please contact Alissa Reindel and Victoria Pao at [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you.