What a big week for Democrats Abroad Belgium! This is the week of our Global Presidential Primary, and we hosted three days of "in person" voting at two different polling stations in Brussels - thanks to the hard work of our Voting Manager, Tiffany Fliss, our new Vice-Chair, Pauline Manos, and our enthusiastic team of volunteers: Sharon Bronzwaer, Simone Burger, Paula Cagli, Elizabeth de Bony, Eric de Bony, Vincent DeSantis, Meena Fernandes, Erik François, Chris Horton, Liz Kinoshita, Gaby Leiden, Natalie McNelis, Shannon Pfohman, Meg Porter, Amanda Rohde, Gail Rubinstein, Vasanth Subramanian, Meredith Tandy, and Tony Zamparutti.
Thanks to you all, we are playing an important role in the nomination process of our party - and we just learned yesterday that we broke our global voter turnout record from 2008, even before all the ballots have been cast! If you haven't voted yet, you have until midnight tonight (CET) to print out your ballot and return it via fax or e-mail - go to www.democratsabroad.org/global_presidential_primary for more info asap! If you have already voted, don't forget to ignore the Hillary vs. Bernie part of your primary absentee ballot, should you receive one.
And speaking of Hillary vs. Bernie, some preliminary results - for just our "in-person" voting here in Brussels, as the remote ballots have not yet been tabulated - Bernie Sanders received 97 votes to Hillary Clinton's 66! We should have final results for Belgium by March 13th, so stand by for that total soon. Congratulations to both our candidates for running respectful and serious issue-oriented campaigns.
DA Belgium also had our Annual General Meeting last week, and we must say thank you to Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels for her many years of service as Vice-Chair, and for her tireless effort in many other roles. Amanda will remain on the Executive Committee as our DPCA elector (she carries one of our votes in international meetings) and trusted advisor. Thank you, Amanda!
We also want to congratulate our new Vice-Chair, Pauline Manos, and our new Secretary, Simone Burger, and wish them well in this busy election year! And a big thank you to Tiffany Fliss for her ex-officio role as our Voting Manager - our successful week would not have happened without her thorough preparation and execution.
Let's keep the momentum going! Please join us for our next DA Belgium "pub social" on Wednesday, March 16th - so we can assess the state of both nominating contests after the third Super Tuesday in a row, when the all important states of Florida, Ohio, and Illinois all cast ballots. RSVP on the Events page and we'll mail you the details - we'll be meeting from 6 to 8 pm and if folks want to continue talking over dinner, there are plenty of restaurant options nearby.
Now is the time to think about what you can do to help your party win in November. Let's not get complacent just because we assume our opponent is Donald Trump - he changes the electoral map in ways we can not yet imagine. Please come to the pub social and sign up to volunteer - for voter registration, campaign events, and Get Out The Vote activities. Your party needs your help - please give some of your time this crucial election year!
Thanks for all that you do.
Best,
Mike Michener
Chair, DA Belgium