Founded | 1964 |
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Headquarters | 430 South Capitol Street SE Washington, D.C. 20003 |
Location |
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Affiliations | Democratic Party |
Website | www |
Democrats Abroad is the official organization of the Democratic Party for United States citizens living temporarily or permanently abroad. The organization is given state-level recognition by the Democratic National Committee. [1]
Democrats Abroad currently has members in more than 197 countries, with 48 organized country committees. [2] There are committees in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. These committees are formally represented by the Democratic Party Committee Abroad (DPCA). Some countries with particularly large concentrations of Democratic expatriates even have local chapters. [3]
One of the prime functions of Democrats Abroad is to assist U.S. citizens abroad in voter registration. To this end, it has created the website VoteFromAbroad.org [4] which overseas U.S. citizens (Democrats and non-members alike) can use to register to vote. Since Presidents and members of Congress are elected by state, U.S. citizens abroad vote in the state in which they have most recently lived, each of which has its own registration and voting procedures.
The VoteFromAbroad.org website asks voters which state they last lived in and then starts a wizard specific to their state that asks for the information necessary to comply with the election laws of that state. After all the information has been supplied, a PDF is created, which the voter can then print, sign, and mail to the address provided (or sometimes fax, or scan and attach to email).
Several weeks before the election, the Board of Elections or County Registrar (states use various names) sends the voter an absentee ballot which the voter then fills out and sends back in order to cast their vote.
In addition to helping U.S. citizens living overseas to register to vote, Democrats Abroad engages in many other activities, mostly on a per country or per locality basis. Among other things, Democrats Abroad:
Democrats Abroad has eight officers. All of them are elected. [5] Officers include:
Democrats Abroad is represented on the Democratic National Committee by eight members. The International Chair and Vice Chair are ex-officio members of the DNC.
Democrats Abroad has caucuses representing interest groups such as the Global AAPI Caucus, the Global Black Caucus, the Global Disabilities Caucus, the Global Hispanic Caucus, the Global LGBT+ Caucus, the Global Progressive Caucus, the Global Veterans and Military Families Caucus, the Global Women's Caucus, and the Global Youth Caucus.
Democrats Abroad was started with two small committees in London and Paris after Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater in the 1964 U.S. presidential election. Its original leaders, Toby Hyde and Al Davidson, raised funds and formed committees, and pushed for state-level recognition of Democrats Abroad. DNC Chairman John Bailey allowed Democrats Abroad to send nine non-voting representatives to the Democratic National Convention in 1972; in 1976, the group was granted the status of a state committee, with voting delegates in the convention.
Over the years, Democrats Abroad has worked for securing the full citizenship rights for U.S. citizens living abroad. It has lobbied for marriage equality, [6] so that U.S. citizens in same-sex partnerships with citizens of other countries would not be denied the right to live together in the U.S. It supports reform of tax laws that unfairly burden U.S. citizens abroad. [7] In particular, the group has long worked for voting rights for U.S. citizens at home and abroad, including supporting the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act in 1986, and the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot.
Democrats Abroad switched its method of determining convention delegates from a primary to an open caucus in 1992. In 2008, Democrats Abroad switched back to a primary process. Former president Jimmy Carter is the current and first ever honorary chair of Democrats Abroad. [8]
Democrats Abroad sends a delegation to the Democratic National Convention every four years and has done so since 1976.
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An absentee ballot is a vote cast by someone who is unable or unwilling to attend the official polling station to which the voter is normally allocated. Methods include voting at a different location, postal voting, proxy voting and online voting. Increasing the ease of access to absentee ballots is seen by many as one way to improve voter turnout through convenience voting, though some countries require that a valid reason, such as infirmity or travel, be given before a voter can participate in an absentee ballot. Early voting overlaps with absentee voting. Early voting includes votes cast before the official election day(s), by mail, online or in-person at voting centers which are open for the purpose. Some places call early in-person voting a form of "absentee" voting, since voters are absent from the polling place on election day.
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The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), P.L. 99-410, 52 U.S.C. §§ 20301–20311, 39 U.S.C. § 3406, 18 U.S.C. §§ 608–609, is a United States federal law dealing with elections and voting rights for United States citizens residing overseas. The act requires that all U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands allow certain U.S. citizens to register to vote and to vote by absentee ballot in federal elections. The act is Public Law 99-410 and was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on August 28, 1986.
The Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) is a voter assistance and education program established by the United States Department of Defense (DoD) in accordance with federal law to ensure that members of the U.S. armed forces, their eligible family members, and U.S. citizens overseas are aware of their right to vote and have the tools to do so from the country where they are residing.
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An overseas constituency or overseas electoral district is any electoral district located outside of a nation-state's borders but which is recognized by the state's government as a district for the representation of its expatriate residents who live within the territory of another nation-state. Such constituencies are often organized in order to engage expatriate or diaspora voters who retain their citizenship.
Presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party to select the 4,051 delegates to the 2016 Democratic National Convention held July 25–28 and determine the nominee for President in the 2016 United States presidential election. The elections took place within all fifty U.S. states, the District of Columbia, five U.S. territories, and Democrats Abroad and occurred between February 1 and June 14, 2016. Between 2008 and 2020, this was the only Democratic Party primary in which the nominee had never been nor had ever become President of the United States. This was the first Democratic primary to nominate a woman for President.
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Democrats Abroad holds a primary awarding delegates to the Democratic National Convention to represent expatriate voters. This primary is conducted as part of the Democratic Party's presidential primaries. In some earlier elections, in place of a primary, a caucus system was used by Democrats Abroad to determine their convention delegations.
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The 2020 Democrats Abroad Presidential Primary took place from March 3 to 10, 2020, allowing U.S. citizens residing outside the United States and those officially affiliated with Democrats Abroad to participate in the Democratic Party's 2020 presidential nomination process. Spanning more than 230 voting locations worldwide, participants cast their in-person votes across various countries and continents. Alternative voting methods included e-mail and postal mail. The voting period started on Super Tuesday and concluded the Tuesday of the following week. The 2020 Democrats Abroad Global Primary allocated a total of 21 delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention. Among these, 13 were pledged delegates, committed to supporting a specific candidate based on primary results, each holding a full vote. Additionally, 8 automatic delegates, unbound to any candidate and each possessing a half vote, contributed to a cumulative total of 17 votes.
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