The fervor of Super Tuesday has also been noticed in the Barcelona offices of Democrats Abroad (DA), the official arm of the Democratic Party abroad. This platform helps and encourages the voting of American citizens who reside outside the country and in an election year, like this one, its work is doubled. With offices in Africa, the Middle East or America and with headquarters in Taipei, Nairobi or Paris, “we help and facilitate the voting and paperwork that United States citizens who live outside the country have to do, so that the approximately 2.9 millions of citizens who can vote, do so if they want,” explains Lisa Berger, vice president of DA in Spain.
The fight between Donald Trump and Joe Biden crosses borders, and every vote counts. In the 2020 elections, Biden won the presidency by a difference of just over 20,000 votes between the historically Republican states of Georgia and Arizona. A tight result that promises to be just as small in the November 5 elections. That is why the relevance of each vote, and the ballot of US citizens residing abroad, increasingly has more weight.
“After the 2020 election results were known, Trump called the Secretary General of Georgia to find the 11,780 votes he needed to declare himself victorious, while there were 14,000 votes by mail. Therefore, you could say that we were decisive,” says Berger.
This platform is covered by the UOCAVA Act (Uniform Citizens Absentee Voting Act), which was first enacted for military personnel stationed outside the United States, and now also covers to civilian citizens. This law entitles Americans who reside outside the country to receive the electoral ballot six weeks before the elections, and thus be able to send the vote by mail, which can take up to a month, which “can be the difference between arriving or not. ”, as Berger points out.
In decisive states -swing states-, which changed color in the 2020 elections, such as Georgia or Nevada, Lisa Berger accuses Republican state governors of “making it increasingly difficult to vote.” More and more impediments to exercising democratic rights. Removing people from the electoral rolls or prohibiting people from going to supply voters while they wait in long lines to cast their ballot, are one of the practices that Berger points out that Republicans have legislatively enacted to prevent universal suffrage and civil mobilization in the so-called “decisive” states.
The more than 4,000 people affiliated with DA in Spain mostly have family and friends in the United States, so their main concerns have to do with national laws. The right to bodily autonomy, through the Abortion Law, or public health “is a dream for all of us who enjoy healthcare in Spain,” says Lisa Berger.
But also, measures such as the prevention of gun violence appear in North American discourses with increasing frequency. “They are causing traumatized children who do not want to go to school, restricting their freedom,” as the DA vice president points out to Republican policies that endorse the right to bear arms as a constitutional virtue.
The war in Gaza may have consequences for the Biden-Harris administration, the pacifist speeches that counteract the American warlike actions are the shadows of a government that the situation in the Middle East may be its Achilles heel in the November 5 elections. . Additionally, Biden’s senility has been mocked by his Republican namesake, leading to distrust in American society.
But Berger points to the highlights that his four years in office have had, such as the reduction of student debts or the reduction of unemployment. Good measures that have often been overshadowed by the Republican media apparatus.
It is therefore important to highlight the relevance of the 100,000 protest votes in the Michigan primaries that Biden suffered a week ago. Berger points out that “it is a democratic mechanism so that the will of society is heard.” Now, it remains to be seen the magnitude of the lights and shadows of Joe Biden’s presidency in the November 5 elections.
