We Are Them - Democrats Abroad
~ by Anne Porter
I landed in Baja after the 2020 U.S. election feeling cut off and—like many—desperate about American politics. Living close to the border meant I could still pop across to vote. But what if I’d been deployed overseas, or deep in an aid mission half a world away, desperate for my ballot to count? That’s when my friend and fellow political traveler, Joan, asked: “Have you ever heard of Democrats Abroad?” In an instant, my isolation cracked open.
Few Americans realize that citizens living overseas didn’t gain the right to cast absentee ballots until 1975. Yet U.S. democracy has always had global fingerprints: Thomas Jefferson drafted the Bill of Rights while stationed in Paris as ambassador. A century later, Union soldiers in the Civil War demanded absentee voting. World War II service members raised the call again. Because voting rules are controlled by the states—even for federal races—enshrining a national right to vote from abroad meant rewriting systems everywhere.
In 1964, two scrappy committees in London and Paris launched Democrats Abroad. They raised money, caught headlines, and forced Washington to confront the injustice. Ten years of relentless, bipartisan lobbying led to the
Overseas Citizens Voting Rights Act of 1975, signed by President Gerald Ford in January 1976. But fear of the IRS still deterred many. Democrats Abroad pushed Congress to clarify the law: in 1978, exercising your vote abroad was explicitly shielded from triggering state or federal tax obligations.
That breakthrough paved the way for the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act of 1986—today’s backbone for millions of Americans voting overseas. Mexico hosts more U.S. citizens than any other country—over 1.6 million—and in 2024 Democrats Abroad sent 21 delegates to the Democratic Convention, more than some U.S. states.
After the disputed 2000 Florida election, Democrats Abroad again pressed for reform. Their efforts produced permanent voter registration for two election cycles and better tracking of overseas ballots under the Help America Vote Act of 2002. What began as a few ex-pats in cafés has become a global, boots-on-the-ground movement. With Mexican government permission, Democrats Abroad now stages rallies across the country, while its nonpartisan arm, Vote From Abroad, registers voters of every stripe.
Yet hard-won rights remain fragile. New restrictions—including the ironically titled SAVE Act (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, HR 22), passed by the House in April—threaten to make absentee voting abroad harder again. Read the bill. Then call your representatives. Democracy survives only when we defend it.
It took ten years, dogged ex-pats, and a Congress willing to cooperate across party lines to win the vote for Americans overseas. Can it happen again? That answer rests with us. Wherever we live, whatever border we’ve crossed, every single one of us matters.
Learn more about Democrats Abroad or get involved by reaching out to Joan Lucci at (US) 505-920-2385 or [email protected] (general questions and information) or John Boothby (get help voting as an absentee overseas voter) at +52 33 1 798 3724 or [email protected].
Article originally published in October 2025 issue OC-S 2025 of Baja News.