Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign hopes securing support among overseas voters from swing states will clinch the 2024 presidential election.
The Democratic campaign has invested $300,000 to register the 9 million voters who live abroad. The Democratic National Committee estimated overseas voters represented 9% of registered voters in 2020.
The funds will be distributed to Democrats Abroad, the arm of the party leading the international registration effort.
“These investments will help Democrats Abroad’s extensive efforts to register these 9 million citizens and ramp up their mail-in voting operation and other efforts in mobilizing the abroad vote in the battleground states,” said the DNC in an Aug. 12 press release. “This election will be won on the margins, and with only three months until the election, every vote matters – including the votes of those who are serving or living abroad. In what will be a close election, the DNC is leaving no stone left unturned to ensure that Kamala Harris will be the next president of the United States.”
The DNC estimates that, cumulatively, this year’s battleground states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin – have just over 1.6 million residents living abroad. This figure includes members of the military who are stationed internationally.
“In 2020, just 44,000 votes across Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin votes won Joe Biden the presidency,” the organization added. “In fact, abroad voters made a notable difference in Georgia and Arizona during the 2020 presidential election and made the difference in close races in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and North Carolina during the 2022 midterms.”
Democrats Abroad has chapters on six continents and promotes progressive American causes internationally.
“Our role in turning US-based activities into worldwide movements — such as the Women’s March, March for Science and March for Our Lives — is a critical part of what we do, helping to raise awareness for Americans abroad and the issues we continue to fight for,” the nonprofit states.
Martha McDevitt-Pugh, Democrats Abroad international chair, praised President Joe Biden in July after the incumbent opted to end his bid for reelection.
“Today a man who’s overcome numerous obstacles and intense personal loss to dedicate his entire life to public service carried out one more act of profound self-sacrifice by voluntarily giving up a chance at four more years in the most powerful job on earth,” McDevitt-Pugh, who votes in California but lives in the Netherlands, said in a press release. “Joe Biden ran for the Presidency in 2020 to save America from the damage being done to it by Donald Trump — he now ends his campaign in order to do everything in his power to yet again save America from a return of Trump, complete with a radical Vice Presidential nominee and the dangerous and unpopular Project 2025 agenda.”
Eligible American citizens who live internationally can “receive an absentee ballot by email, fax, or internet download, depending on the state they are eligible to vote in,” according to the Department of State.
The agency reports that “most U.S. citizens 18 years or older who reside outside the United States are eligible to vote absentee” in primaries and general elections for federal offices.
“In addition, some states allow overseas citizens to vote for state and local office candidates and referendums,” noted the State Department. “In some states, U.S. citizens who are 18 years or older and were born abroad but who have never resided in the United States are eligible to vote absentee.”
