I started writing this a couple of days ago, but that was before Wednesday night's Supreme Court decision to approve cert for Trump's latest delay tactic - the claim that a president is above the law. I had to start this newsletter over.
It is alarming that our Supreme Court accepted this case. I'm not going to discuss the whys and what it means (I've attached a very smart explanation by Joyce Vance below), but I am going to say to everyone - please get involved in some way. This is one election we can't sit out. We have a TON of Americans to reach who have moved here - while our membership is exploding, it's still comparative: we have more than 10,000 Americans here and while we now have 2000 members - there's at least 5000 more we can reach. We need help to make sure we get every Democrat registered and voting. I'll remind you that of all the U.S. citizens living abroad who didn't vote in 2020, 71% said it was because they didn't know how. That's a stunning percentage. Every little bit is going to help us. The link to volunteer is below.
I could easily list all of the red flags from just this past week alone - but I won't. Instead, I'm going to focus on what's been happening in Portugal in this same time frame:
- We had a well-attended Annual General Meeting, with Catherine Hardwicke reminding us why our vote is important.
- We are currently 6th in the world for Presidential Ballot returns - only behind five of the countries with the largest membership (Great Britain, France, Germany, Mexico and Canada) and ahead of many others with membership far bigger than ours (not gonna shame!).
- We had two very successful voter registration events in Coimbra and Matosinhos, and two more coming up in Lisbon (tomorrow) and the Algarve (March), and a meet-up in Cascais.
- We have launched our Phonebank campaign - reaching out to members around the country reminding them to request their ballots and to vote
- OUR MEMBERSHIP NUMBERS ARE EXPLODING: 104 new members in january; 130 in February - with more people joining daily.
- We will be launching our postcard writing campaign in March.
I am a broken record: please get involved. The courts are not going to save us. We are.
THE DA Global Presidential Primary is Next Week!!
We've been spreading the word about why you should vote for president as a DA member. I hope I can clarify:
YES - you still vote in your state primary via the ballot you requested.
NO - you don't vote for President twice - you leave President blank on the state ballot and vote for your choice via the Presidential Primary ballot.
YES - you can vote in person in Lisbon on two different days. RSVP here.
WHY two-fer (two ballots)? Because you are literally voting as a Democrat living abroad - the more of us who cast our votes as DA members, the more the DNC and the administration will listen to us when we represent issues and interests that we care about.
Questions? write to [email protected]
Don't miss March 2nd's voter registration event in Lisbon - if you want in-person help requesting your ballot, or have friends who are still not registered at all because they've either just moved here or don't know how, come to our event tomorrow!
If you live in the Algarve and want the same live and in-person help registering - or know friends who need to register - please come to our Algarve event and spread the word!
If volunteering just isn't your thing, please choose to donate instead. Even $25 will help us expand our outreach. The money is not wasted.
IF you're looking for a way to get involved that's easy and local, and IF you want to know exactly where your donation is going, we have a new idea. We have designed posters - large and small versions - with the idea that you can download, have printed and ask permission to post in local cafe's, restaurants, watering holes or other places that American's may gather. They contain QR codes that will directly link you to votefromabroad.org. The printing can be in your home on a standard A4 paper, or professionally on hard stock depending on your use. They can be printed either one to a page or four, for smaller print-outs. AND, grab it on your phone and store in favorites so you can share with people on the go.
They look like this:
Please let me know if you would be willing to post. We are developing additional posters that you can use. Also, you can grab this for your phone and help anyone anywhere connect to votefromabroad.org to register to vote. Easy!! They can be accessed here.
Joyce Vance: The Supreme Court Disappoints
Mehdi Hasan's new Media launch: Zeteo
Ten Percent Happier: Rick Rubin
Thom Hartmann: The New Over the Top Secret Plan On How Fascists Could Win in 2024
Stand with Democracy,
Sally DeSipo
Chair, DA Portugal