Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Improved Absentee Voting Forms Released

The Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) has released updated versions of the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) and Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot (FWAB) for the 2018 election cycle. Overseas citizens may use the FPCA to request absentee ballotsregister to vote, and update contact information, and in the event that a requested absentee ballot is not received in a timely fashion, we can vote using the FWAB as a backup ballot.

Both the FPCA and FWAB forms are accepted by all states and territories in elections for federal office. Voters have the option of using other types of absentee ballot request forms, but Democrats Abroad strongly encourages all overseas voters to use these federal forms to guarantee certain protections — such as the option to receive a ballot electronically and the requirement for election offices to send ballots to voters at least 45 days before elections for federal office.

FVAP included Democrats Abroad in the design review process and incorporated many of our recommendations in the new forms. Voter may still submit older forms following current state requirements. FVAP notes that hardcopy versions of the forms will NOT be available until later this year. For now, the new forms are available as PDFs via FVAP.gov:
Fillable Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) from fvap.gov/uploads/FVAP/Forms/fpca.pdf
Fillable Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot (FWAB) from fvap.gov/uploads/FVAP/Forms/fwab.pdf

Thursday, August 17, 2017

Special & State Elections 2017

If you are a former resident from any of the states and voting districts listed below, go to VoteFromAbroad.org and complete the form to request an absentee ballot or to register to vote. Print and sign the form and then send it to your election office to ensure you will receive a ballot for the election. Many states accept scanned forms by email or fax. Please mail your voting materials early enough to account for mail delivery times.

No elections in your jurisdiction? Take action by joining Democrats Abroad phonebanking to support Democrats running in the New Jersey and Virginia State Elections, as well as the Special Election for Florida's State Senate 40th District. These are the first phonebanking campaigns for the Fall elections — with more to come. The phonebanking campaigns will start on Friday, August 18 to coincide with the Democratic Party's "Weekend of Action". And to sweeten the pie, DA is giving away our famous "donkey bags" to any phonebanking volunteers who make more than 30 calls this weekend (from Friday through Sunday evening Pacific Time).

→ New volunteers: Follow the instructions to sign up for phonebanking.
→ Returning phonebankers: Review the updated list of Callhub Caller Do's and Don'ts and then go to https://callhub.io to login into your CallHub account.

Florida — State Senate 40th District

State Special Election on September 26
Concerns voters in the Southwest Miami-Dade area...

Thursday, June 8, 2017

U.S. Special Elections in 2017

This Week:

Georgia 6th — Ballots must be returned by MAIL — Last day to request a ballot is June 16 — Waiting for Runoff ballot from Georgia? Vote NOW using the Back-up Ballot →

South Carolina 5th — Voted ballots must be received by June 20 — There's still time to request a ballot — Waiting for the State ballot? Vote NOW using the Back-up Ballot →

Overseas citizens should go through the process of requesting an absentee ballot for the handful of States holding special elections in 2017, by completing the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) form. The same form is used by first time voters to register, and covers all federal elections in the calendar year, including primaries and runoffs. If you are a former resident from any of the states and voting districts listed below, go to VoteFromAbroad.org and complete the form to request or register for an absentee ballot. Print and sign the form and then send it to your election office to ensure you will receive a ballot for the election. Many states accept scanned forms by email or fax.

Georgia — U.S. House, 6th Congressional District

Special Election Runoff on June 20


Seat vacated by the resignation of Tom Price (R) when he was confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services — concerns voters in Cobb, DeKalb and Fulton Counties. Ballots will be sent beginning March 4 for those who have requested them...

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Don't Feed the Propaganda / Faux News Websites

How do we bring political discourse back to a place of civility if we cannot even stand on a foundation of truth? Conserve energy, don't feed into the frenzy by wasting your time with propaganda websites that profit off of this hyper-political reality with click-bait headlines. Certainly not complete, but a good place to start, here is a list of websites that have been identified as distributing faux news targeting liberals. Evaluate for yourself, let us know if you disagree or think others should be added.
  1. Occupy Democrats
  2. Bipartisan Report
  3. Winning Democrats
  4. PoliticusUSA
  5. Blue Nation Review
  6. IfYouOnlyNews
  7. USUncut
  8. The Freethought Project
  9. Addicting Info
  10. LiberalAmerica
  11. Newslo
  12. Politicalo*
  13. DailyNewsBin
  14. American News X
  15. Being Liberal
  16. The Other 98%
* almost anything that ends on lo; these sites specialize in taking accurate statements from politicians and then adding false quotes to them that are much worse than what they actually said

"Please Stop Sharing Links to These Sites" Ed Brayton. Sep 18, 2016. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatches/2016/09/18/please-stop-sharing-links-to-these-sites/

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Geneva's Election Night Party

American Election Night
Celebration in Geneva

Come watch history in the making !

Live Streaming News Coverage
Live Music and Entertainment   ✮   Interactive Games
Refreshments   ✮   Raffle in collaboration with SWISS

November 8th, 2016
9:30pm to 5:00am

This historic event will take place at a stellar venue
that will be communicated to registered ticket holders on November 6th.

Tickets: 80CHF  |  Purchase online
A small processing fee will be added to your total

For information   ✮   event.aenc@gmail.com

Organized by The AENC Joint Committee of Geneva
✮   American Citizens Abroad Geneva Chapter   ✮
✮   American International Club of Geneva   ✮
✮   The American International Women’s Club of Geneva   ✮
✮   Democrats Abroad Switzerland   ✮   Republicans Overseas   ✮


Grimm Centre Groupe Chevalley Swiss International Air Lines Ltd