The Democratic Party is investing for the first time in voter registration and turnout Voters living outside the United States. The party estimates that about 1.6 million Americans abroad this cycle come from crucial swing states.
The Democratic National Committee is investing $300,000 to reach voters overseas – military and civilian, according to details first leaked to CBS News. The investment, which the DNC says is the first in a presidential campaign, is intended to help Democrats Abroad, the main Democratic group responsible for registering and assisting civilian voters outside the U.S. with voting by mail.
Nonmilitary American voters living outside the United States include those who are abroad for business, students studying abroad for a semester, and “digital nomads” who can work from anywhere.
While experts and activists say the transient nature of expats eligible to vote makes them difficult to track, the latest government data from the 2020 presidential election shows that 2 million are either on active duty or are spouses and dependents of military members, and that 2.9 million are ineligible U.S. citizens. Of the nearly 5 million eligible residents and military members abroad, 1.25 million registered to vote in 2020, according to an election agency survey.
Paul Zinken/Picture Alliance via Getty Images
However, the DNC estimates that more than 1.62 million overseas voters this cycle will come from the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
While 47% of military voters cast ballots in 2020, only 8% of nonmilitary voters living outside the military cast ballots in the race between President Biden and former President Donald Trump. Nonmilitary voter turnout in the 2022 congressional midterm elections was even lower, at 3.4%, according to the Federal Voting Assistance Program.
But Democrats point to increased interest in Vice President Kamala Harris’ candidacy and say they will leave no stone unturned.
“This election will be won by a narrow margin, and every single vote counts,” said Roger Lau, deputy executive director of the DNC. “Democrats are leaving nothing to chance and are investing heavily in our overseas party to ensure that every single American citizen has a voice in this election.”
Martha McDevitt-Pugh, chair of Democrats Abroad, said that since Biden withdrew his candidacy on July 21, the number of Americans living abroad registering to vote and requesting their ballot through the website votefrombroad.org has increased by 100%.
“Joe Biden made us feel a little disconnected,” said Peter Scardino, a 25-year-old Democrat living in Britain. “(Harris) is definitely a much more inspiring candidate. I think that’s what we feel across the pond when we see the news we’re getting.”
McDevitt-Pugh added that political leanings vary from country to country, but most countries lean Democratic. A GOP group founded in 2013, Republican Overseas, directs foreign citizens who want to register to the nonpartisan Federal Voting Assistance Program.
In past elections, postal voting abroad was decisive.
When the 2022 Pennsylvania Republican Senate primaries took place, on the way to a recountState election officials said there were about 6,000 outstanding absentee ballots – including votes from military personnel and from overseas – that were still being counted. Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz was declared the winner by just 951 votes.
According to Democrats Abroad, half of the ballots requested by American nonmilitary voters in 2020 were returned to swing states. And ballots counted overseas in Arizona (18,483) and Georgia (18,867) were larger than Biden’s lead, according to a 2020 analysis by the Election Assistance Commission.
LEON NEAL / Getty Images
According to the Federal Voting Assistance Program, most adult U.S. citizens living abroad are in Canada, followed by the United Kingdom, France and Israel.
The technical aspect of ballot return varies from state to state, but out-of-state citizens primarily used email, while voters in uniform typically returned their ballots by mail, according to an investigation by the Board of Elections and the Elections Commission.
Having an infrastructure in place to inform voters how and when to cast their ballots is critical, said McDeVitt-Pugh, who lives in the Netherlands but is registered to vote in California.
She points out that these voters often move around and move from place to place, which is why Democrats Abroad focuses each election cycle on reaching out to new voters through its on-the-ground organizations in 190 countries.
In 2020, about 40% of states required overseas ballots to be received by Election Day, while 60% of states had deadlines after Election Day but required ballots to be postmarked by then.
She said several swing states – Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – require ballots to be returned by mail, which could be challenging in countries without a “well-functioning postal system.”
“You have to get the ballots in really early,” McDeVitt-Pugh said, adding that most mail-in ballots overseas are sent by Sept. 21, 45 days before Election Day. “One of the big problems Americans abroad have is that they wait too long.”
McDevitt-Pugh said the low voter turnout among U.S. citizens abroad is largely because “people abroad don’t know that they can vote… that they retain that right to vote.”
She added that the DNC’s investment could help them digitally reach areas with large American citizens, such as Canada, where there are large numbers of registered voters in Michigan and Ohio.
“There are a whole range of reasons why people live abroad. It’s great to be recognised – this is an important constituency,” she added.
The right of all states to count votes cast overseas is protected by the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) of 1967.
