Here's what's happening in Democrats Abroad in July —
Events:
- Welt Museum Tour for DA Members
- Comedy Night – This Election Ain't No Joke
Inside Democrats Abroad Austria:
- Making the Margin of Victory
- Reach Beyond Members – What can you do to help?
- Join the DAA IT Team
Inside Democrats Abroad Global:
- Editorials from Around DA
- Democratic National Convention – Chicago August 19–22,2024
Issues and Actions:
- Take Action! Numbers Speak Louder Than Words
Review:
- Debate Watch Party
- Annual July 4 Celebration
Our Executive Committee meetings are usually held on the second Thursday of the month. Our next meeting will be on Thursday, August 1, at 7:00 p.m. Members are welcome to join us at the meetings. Please contact Richard at [email protected] for the address and meeting link.
DAA is making a strong effort to include in our monthly newsletter all the information you need to stay up to date. By sending you fewer emails, we hope you will read those you receive. Thanks for reading!
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Events Coming up in September:
Tour of the Welt Museum for DA Members
When: Tuesday, TBD
Time: Evening Opening Hours. TBD
Where: Welt Museum, Neue Hofburg, Heldenplatz, 1010 Wien
Comedy Night – This Election Ain’t No Joke
When: Sunday, September 15
Time: 19:00
Where: TBD
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Inside Democrats Abroad Austria:
Making the Margin of Victory
The Democrats Abroad Executive Committee met for our monthly meeting on July 4—but not to celebrate. Instead, we had the weighty decision of how to allocate our remaining funds to make the biggest impact to reach new voters and non-members in the critical months ahead. There are 12,730 US citizens in Austria who are eligible to vote and less than 10% actually return their ballot. We need to change that.
This election is a make or break moment. That’s why the DAA Executive Committee allocated $3,370 for the last push of our 2024 get-out-the-vote effort. Thanks to your donations, we’ve already invested $2,300 on calling all our members, organizing the GPP, and improving our infrastructure.
With this push, we’ll reach untapped eligible voters with digital ads on Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, and Google search ads. In September, we’ll send a mailer to DA Austria members from battleground states with postal-mail-only ballot returns and those who are not emailable or callable. We will also have a feature article and ads running in The Local.
This is of course on top of the countless hours our volunteer voter registration teams spend at study abroad programs and universities, international schools, and at markets and MaHu raising awareness and helping folks request their ballots on votefromabroad.org.
What can you do to help?
- Like, comment, and share when you see our digital ads and posts! This is critical to increase their impact and reach.
- Join one of our registration teams. We’ll get you trained.
- Donate to help us contact the thousands of potential voters in Austria. Your support will fund our continued outreach and ensure voters abroad send their ballots back home to help preserve democracy.
In 2020, voters abroad delivered over 18,000 votes in both Georgia and Arizona. Joe Biden won both states by just over 11,700 votes, handing him the White House. Kris Mayes won the Arizona State Attorney’s office with just 280 votes – she credits the overseas vote for her win. Your vote matters. The 10,000 untapped voters in Austria matter. Let’s make sure they count.
Join the DAA IT Team
Are you tech savvy and have a couple of hours per week to spare? DA Austria’s IT team is looking for a volunteer to help us support our volunteers and our leadership in the background by investigating new tools and strategies, user administration, technical support and general troubleshooting. Help us help our team to get out the vote!
To find out more, contact [email protected].
– Brett Carnito, DAA IT Team and Member-at-Large
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Inside Democrats Abroad Global:
Editorials from Around DA
Events of the past couple weeks have shaken many of us to our core. We thought it’s good to hear what folks in other DA committees are saying and thinking, so we're sharing one of them here. DA UK’s Chair writes about the elephant in the room and what we need to do about it. (This piece was added to the newsletter prior to the assassination attempt on 13 July).
Democratic National Convention – Chicago August 19–22,2024
DA Austria will send two former country committee chairs – Katie Solon and me – to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August as part of DA’s 23-member delegation. We’re looking forward to representing Democrats Abroad and hope you’ll tell your friends and family to look out for us on the convention floor!
– Jen Rakow-Stepper, Regional Vice Chair for EMEA, DAAT Member-at-Large
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Issues and Actions:
Take Action!
Numbers speak louder than words —
- In 2020, 11,575 US citizens were eligible to vote in Austria. Of those, 2,778 (24%) submitted a federal postcard application. But only 1,852 of those ballots were returned and voted.
- In 2020, DA Austria had 1,820 members. 1,102 DAA members (60%) requested their ballot through Vote from Abroad and voted.
- Although only 15% of eligible voters in Austria are DA members, almost 40% of ballot requests came from DA Austria members.
- Our messaging and outreach ensures that our members are informed and successfully vote!
Overseas voters MUST request their ballot EVERY YEAR to make sure their vote will be counted. Using the Federal Postcard Application ensures rights that are protected under Federal law –
- You can receive your ballot electronically
- You’ll receive it 45 days before the election
- You can use a backup ballot–especially if your state requires you to mail your ballot
- Your ballot MUST be counted, even in races that aren’t close.
So, what are you waiting for? Ballot drop day is September 21. Request your ballot TODAY.
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Review:
Debate Watch Party
We were bracing ourselves going into the Debate Watch Party after reading the headlines and seeing clips from the previous night's debate. About 20 Americans and a few interested non-Americans joined us on Friday, June 28, at the Beaver Brewing Co. to watch a replay. It certainly helped to be in the company of many people to watch it, and there was a lively - some might say cathartic - discussion afterwards about Biden and Trump’s performance. Many thanks to all of you who attended!
—Hilary Monihan, DAA Vice Chair
Annual July 4 Celebration
A big ‘thank you’ to those who attended our Fourth of July celebration and fundraiser at Die Schankwirtschaft im Augarten. Some 60 people enjoyed beautiful weather and good conversation over drinks and an American-style buffet. We had live music from ‘Democrats Rock,’ which included DA’s own Kate Cleary on lead vocals, Jon Nighswander on bass, and Rich Miller on drums. Thanks to DA allies Paulo Bastos on guitar and Gregor Lötsch on vocals for completing the band line-up. We raised nearly $1,000, which will go towards our digital advertising campaign and other measures to help Americans in Austria register and request their ballot for November.
— Richard Miller, DAA Chair
Thank you for reading the July Newsletter. Have a great summer and the newsletter will be back in September!