Thank you.

Thank you for volunteering.
Thank you for passing good resolutions.
Thank you for donating.
Thank you for keeping us accountable.
Thank you for voting.
Thank you for letting us serve you.

Thank you for doing your best.

Thank you, and we hope all of you aspire to run for office and bring us closer to a better future. None of this works without you.

Kindest,
John, Kiyoko, Anna, Dave
Democrats Abroad Japan Executive Committee

Election Day is drawing nearer, and there’s very limited time left to cast your vote and send in your overseas ballot! (And if you haven’t registered/requested your ballot, do so NOW: https://www.votefromabroad.org/ - many states have ballot request deadlines this week.)

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With election day drawing nearer, we all want to check in one last time to make sure everyone has requested their ballot and has relevant, accessible information to successfully return their ballot in their state.

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Dear Democrats Abroad Japan Members,

The biggest thing we need to do this year is Vote! in November and make sure all our 4000 DAJ members, their friends and families vote, too. One of the most effective ways we can do that is by calling/messaging them through a 📞phone banking campaign.

We need to act fast⏰.  The recommended date for yearly voter registration to get a ballot this year is August 1st. Only 600 of our roughly 4000 members in Japan have completed their www.votefromabroad.org ballot requests so far.😱   

 Ways you can help:

1.     Phone banking📞- help call our DAJ members

     We are launching an online phone banking campaign, and need volunteers. It's easy. The campaign software does automatic dialing, and then you just follow the script on the screen.

Sign up at https://www.democratsabroad.org/voter_support_team (more details at # 3.)

1.   Register Yourself!

         If you have not filled out your votefromabroad.org ballot request, go do it NOW, so we don’t need to call you. If you have already requested your ballot this year, forward the link to your US citizen friends and colleagues. 🙏

Go to https://www.votefromabroad.org/

1.     Join a Phone banking online party📞🎉

DA Australia is sponsoring online phone bank parties several nights a week.  All Democrats Abroad members living in Asia Pacific countries 🌏 are welcome to join. They provide training on how to join the call campaign, then everyone goes off to make phone calls for an hour, and finally everyone returns to have a quick online postmortem discussion.  We can do our own team-Japan campaign “2020-07 JP CC-BallotReq Japan-ALL #057B (0000-0800EDT)”

RSVP for the Australia events at https://www.democratsabroad.org/au_events

For information on the campaign, please contact JP-treasurer@democratsabroad.org

There will be a peaceful march for Black Lives Matter in Fukuoka on Sunday, June 21st. The organizers aim to spread awareness of the movement and expect the event to be well-attended. Previous Black Lives Matter marches in Osaka and Tokyo attracted over 4500 attendees combined. 

Democrats Abroad Japan fully supports this event and encourages members to attend if possible. It would be wonderful to see Fukuoka bring the combined attendance up to 5000 attendees! Please follow any precautions for coronavirus as set by the organizers and follow all local ordinance for a peaceful march.

EVENT DETAILS

Time: Sunday, June 21st, 13:00 JST (1:00pm)

Location: Tenjin Central Park

Address: 1 Chome-1 Tenjin, Chuo Ward, Fukuoka, 810-0001

For more information, check Black Lives Matter Fukuoka’s Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

 

You voted in the primary & did the work for the platform! Now it's time to get out there and do some grassroots work! Time to go meet people, learn about issues, and get on the phone with members! 

There's a number of events happening in Tokyo this month we thought we'd let you know about! 

Here's 3 events for you to look at for June!  

• Black Lives Matter Peaceful March, Yoyogi Event Plaza
• Nerd Nite Watchwords - Tools for Democracy, Online
• Phonebanking Training, Online

See below for details about each of these events!

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Keep our DNC Members accountable to their members! Even now, every vote matters!

UPCOMING 2020 PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY ELECTIONS

See the full list of upcoming primary elections, including for federal and state-level positions.

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Coronavirus Aid for Americans Abroad

Thanks to the Corona Aid Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, relief is being distributed for working people amongst the current pandemic crisis. We have done the research, and Democrats Abroad wanted to let you know that Americans living abroad who filed their taxes and made a gross income of less than $99,000 are eligible for the relief under the package! You can receive up to $1,200 (plus $500 for each child) to help with everything going on right now. Furthermore, Americans with federal student loans automatically have their interest rate set to 0% for 60 days and can request a 60-day payment suspension.

Click here for more details on the act. 

 

Delegates for Democratic National Convention

Democrats Abroad will send 21 delegates to the National Convention in Milwaukee on August 17th. The deadline to apply for a delegate position is April 17th. This is a great honor and among the most important civic roles for U.S. citizens living abroad. Any DA member is eligible to run, and the Affirmative Action Committee strongly emphasizes the importance of DA members from historically-underrepresented backgrounds to run as delegate candidates in showing the world the diversity of our Party and our members around the world.

Forms to declare delegates’ candidacy are now available online. 

Japan Voting Center Provisional Results

Global Presidential Primary 2020 

John A. Baumlin Jr, National Chair of Democrats Abroad Japan

Yesterday, on March 8th, 2020, voters gathered in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya to cast their ballots. No challenges were reported to the voting centers, indicating a successful and fluid operation for the Voting Centers in Japan. The provisional results from each Voting Center in Japan and totals are below: 

Provisional Results Breakdown

Total Voting Center Provisional Results

Joseph R. Biden	24 Votes
☑ Bernie Sanders	176 Votes
Elizabeth Warren	11 Votes
Andrew Yang	1 Vote

Kanto Voting Center (Tokyo) Provisional Results

Joseph R. Biden	16 Votes
☑ Bernie Sanders	94 Votes
Elizabeth Warren	6 Votes
Andrew Yang	1 Vote

Kansai Voting Center (Osaka) Provisional Results

Joseph R. Biden	7 Votes
☑ Bernie Sanders	54 Votes
Elizabeth Warren	4 Votes

Tokai Voting Center (Nagoya) Provisional Results

Joseph R. Biden	1 Votes
☑ Bernie Sanders	28 Votes
Elizabeth Warren	1 Votes

Special Thanks

Special thanks to our voting center volunteers and observers, who took great precautions in our voting centers for the safety of our membership. 

Vote Remotely!

A note that if you could not attend yesterday - you can still cast your ballot remotely by March 10th at midnight Pacific Time (GMT -7). Many people will vote remotely due to safety concerns regarding COVID-19, and they will be counted when the official Democrats Abroad global results are announced later this month.

To vote remotely, please visit and follow the instructions at: https://www.democratsabroad.org/primary 

 

Corona Virus Advisory for Voting Centers

The safety of all our members is very important to us at Democrats Abroad Japan. In order to combat the threat of rising infection of COVID-19, effective immediately, we are implementing the following safety precautions for all of our upcoming in-person voting events in coordination with local ordinance for the month of March, 2020.

• Each volunteer at our Ballot Assistance Events and Voting Centers is to wear proper preventative supplies (such as masks, gloves, etc) to reduce direct contact with others. Please coordinate with your voting center manager about reimbursements for these supplies.

• All volunteers and venue assistants are asked to be vigilant about spreading out lines and keeping people within a reasonable distance of one another if any centers reach a high volume.

• We ask all members in the Hokkaido region to suspend all in-person activities for the next 3 weeks in accordance with the State of Emergency for that region.

• All members, if you are sick with cold or flu-like symptoms, have children, are elderly, or otherwise at high risk, we recommend that you please follow the instructions below regarding remote voting.

Remote Voting

Remote voting for the 2020 Global Presidential Primary is now open. You can follow the steps here to download your ballot and submit it via e-mail. If you'll be spending some extra time at home this week, it's the perfect time to cast your ballot right at home from your PC! You can find a full guide about all the ways you can vote in the primary and voting center information here.

We are working closely with our global leadership throughout this period. Please contact jp-chair@democratsabroad.org for any further information.