2020 has been a record breaking year for Democrats Abroad, as we have nearly tripled our outreach to Americans abroad and are on track to double the vote from abroad. The unique challenges presented by the global COVID pandemic and international mail disruption make these achievements particularly significant.
KEY FACTS:
In 2016
- 930k US citizens and military abroad (UOCAVA voters) received ballots
- 633k UOCAVA voters returned their ballots,
- 48% of ballots successfully returned were from Americans abroad voting in what are this year’s battleground states
In 2020
Our nonpartisan voter support tool - VoteFromAbroad.org - has seen more than 766,680 unique visitors visit the site more than 1 million times - nearly 3x 2016 traffic.
- Germany visits up by 491%
- Mexico visits up by 345%
- Canada visits up by 231%
We estimate that in 2020 approximately 1.8 million eligible American Voters living abroad have received ballots (compared to 930,156 ballots received in 2016).
50% of ballots from American Voters Abroad will be returned to battleground states in this year’s election!
We are on target to DOUBLE 2016 voter turnout abroad.
We expect to see a million or more votes sent home from abroad!
This success was made possible through the 18,000 volunteers who generously provide their support, as well as the donations of over 4000 donors, who donated over $995k this cycle to Democrats Abroad (an all volunteer run organization with no external funding).
Our Efforts and Outreach
Drop in Voter Assistance
Our Zoom rooms provided 1:1 voter assistance 5 days a week, helping 5k+ abroad voters with their questions.
Intercom and FreshDesk help desks
Our online help desks for abroad voters and volunteers helped 95k voters with their voter questions.
Phone banking Democrats Abroad
1500 Democrats Abroad volunteers have made over 600,000 calls this election.
Digital advertising to Americans around the world
Democrats Abroad created and managed by far the largest global voter abroad ad program this cycle. (FVAP and OVF ran ad campaigns as well)
DA global and local teams advertised in 50+ countries via facebook, youtube, google, native ads, banner ads, radio, display ads, and more. These ads generated millions of impressions and sent hundreds of thousands of referrals to votefromabroad.org.
Earned media
Democrats Abroad press teams at both the local and global level earned more than 215 mentions in the press this year.
Highlights include: The Atlantic, BBC, Buzzfeed, CBC.ca, CNN, Deutsche Welle, Euronews, The Irish Times, LA Times, NBC News, National Public Radio (NPR), Newsweek, The New York Times, Politico EuropeToday.com, Toronto Star, USA Today, Vice, VOX, Washington Post, Yahoo News.
Ambassadors for Biden
DA partnered with Ambassadors for Biden - an innovative outreach program led by Ambassador Bruce Heyman and Vicki Heyman and which worked with the Biden for President campaign. Together, we leveraged the networks of a large, bipartisan group of former US Ambassadors to amplify and enhance DA’s own get out the vote and fundraising efforts, as well as expand our outreach to Americans abroad.
Our Story: https://youtu.be/pnKUxgIstfo
View from Abroad: https://youtu.be/HNVH2NLQol4
Diplomacy: https://youtu.be/-3gVS0U_SEI
Voter Protection
- Individual leaders and volunteers testified in two Federal cases on behalf of voters abroad this fall. The first case was resolved with a successful judgement against Postmaster DeJoy.
- Worked with the Ambassadors for Biden team on a series of white papers directed to battleground Democratic states that still require hard copy ballot return, providing information on the efficacy of electronic voting.
- Currently run a voter protection division that includes a director, 9 lawyer volunteers, and voter protection volunteers tasked with organizing and managing the escalation of cases from our country committees and voter help communications.
- Worked on 315 cases to date
- Ran state primary elections survey of voter issues (4119 respondents)
- Currently running a general election survey of voter abroad issues (almost 10k respondents so far)
- Currently working with the Florida and Georgia Democratic parties on ballot curing notifications.
- Providing ballot curing information to Arizona, Iowa, Montana, Mississippi, and Ohio voters abroad.
Votefromabroad Stats
- Less than 40% of VFA 2020 users were already DA members
- 6 countries accounted for over half the users: Canada, UK, Germany, France, Mexico, Australia
- VFA users logged in from 221 different countries
- 4 states accounted for over 40% of the voters: CA, NY, TX, FL
- 130 different parties listed
- 75% declared as Democrats and 2.9% as Republicans
- 58.6% were female and only 37.5% as male – other 4% undeclared/other
- Over 95% asked for their ballot via email (our messaging worked!)
- ~45% of our voters were 39 or younger
- 5% born this century