May 1 – Take Action!

Believe in your right to vote? 

Then get off that armchair!  Make it easier to vote as an American abroad!  Write/email your Congressperson to support changes in overseas voting!  And do it NOW - write your letter by May 1 (tomorrow)!

 Representative Carolyn Maloney's bill HR 4237 Overseas Voting Practical Amendments Act of 2007 is moving forward – and fast.  With this bill, voters abroad won't get hung up on technicalities – like missing postmarks or the paper weight of our ballot requests.  Remember 2000?  2004?  We've been working with Representative Maloney so that key voting reform measures are adopted and in place before Election Day 2008.  But we need your help – and urgently. 

Join us in a letter writing campaign supporting HR 4237, by this THURSDAY, MAY 1 st (Yes, that is tomorrow, but it only takes 5 minutes).   

Send your email message to Executive Director Lindsey Reynolds, at ed@democratsabroad.org .  (Please remember to say which state you vote in, and the country you reside in.)

You can find the complete text of the bill with a search for HR 4237 on www.thomas.loc.gov .  A template letter is below that you can use to send to Lindsey Reynolds (just cut and paste, add your information, and whatever else you would like to):     

Representative [Your representative's name]

Rayburn HOB
Washington , DC 20515-3214
USA

Dear [Your representative],

As an American living overseas I recognize the importance of HR 4237 (Overseas Voting Practical Amendments Act of 2007).  As voters, wherever we live, we want to ensure that our rights are protected.  Too often a complex and cumbersome set of rules has discouraged Americans abroad from exercising this fundamental right.  Often ballots arrive too late to be counted, or simply on the wrong kind of paper.  

HR 4237 would help remedy several of these voting rights problems currently facing Americans abroad.  It would prohibit States from refusing to accept balloting materials solely because the materials are generated through the use of a computer program, are not printed on a specific type of paper, or do not otherwise meet similar extraneous requirements which are not clearly necessary to prevent fraud in the conduct of elections.  It would also further empower the State Department to help Americans mail in their absentee ballots, as well as simplify the rules concerning in what state children of Americans living abroad should vote when they come of age.

The voter registration engine www.VoteFromAbroad.org (sponsored by Democrats Abroad, but usable by all Americans abroad) has simplified the process for voters from 50 states and DC and helped reduce the number of incomplete – and therefore potentially invalid – absentee ballot requests.  A large number of citizens would be disenfranchised if their absentee ballot requests were rejected just because they were computer-generated.

I hope that support for this bill will be widespread to protect not only my vote, but of all American voters living in more than 100 countries and from every state across the United States.

Please defend our right to vote as Americans and support HR 4237.

Sincerely,

[Your Name

The state you vote in

The country you live in]

Adventures of a Party Hack in Vancouver

Whoever heard of an American political event that is made up of people from dozens of countries around the world? Over the weekend, I had the privilege to take part in just such a gathering as India's representative of Democrats Abroad at both the Asia-Pacific Caucus, and the Global Convention.

Part of me had viewed the caucuses as insider baseball – those events where the party leadership (and I admit to having called them hacks, and not in a good way!) makes deals about who gets what in terms of position and power within the party structure. And I can confirm that this definitely does happen!

But over the past few days part of me also has come to understand that the sometimes difficult process of divvying up position and power within Democrats Abroad is important. It's necessary that at least a few of us find the stamina to show up and participate in decisions about how we will conduct business as a party, because that is how representative democracy works. In this political season for Democrats Abroad, someone has to embody the votes that you all cast in the Global Primary. And show up we did, about 100 of us from 30 countries.

So yes, for better or worse, I'm now a party hack. Maybe you all (along with my kids!) already saw me in this role, but I can tell you I never thought of myself in these terms until 48 hours ago.

A few highlights of the convention, held in Vancouver, follow.

Day One – the Asia Pacific Regional Caucus

The Asia Pacific Caucus meets. Nine “electors” (people with votes as representatives of country committees) are present from 6 countries – India, Japan, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Australia and Thailand. Amazingly, five others – who are in the thirty-ish age range – flew in at their own expense without an official role, either to run for delegate or to support the caucus. Wow! Commitment!

We elect Lauren Shannon, the Chair of DA Japan, to be the Asia Pacific Democratic National Committee (DNC) member for four years, starting at the closing gavel of the Denver convention. Lauren will be one of our superdelegates. She is full of energy, ideas about getting out the vote for November, and resolve to connect to DA's members as a way to build DA and the Democratic Party from the ground up.

We then go about selecting our region's one delegate, who according to the rules will be pledged to Barack Obama. Of the 14 candidates, seven were present and made short statements. (This included Zach Klonoski, who drove up from Oregon to speak on behalf of his brother, Jake, who is serving with the US military Afghanistan.) All were interesting, committed Obama supporters and many had spent many long hours organizing in their countries for Democrats Abroad. Of the seven, three of us are also electors: Roger Lamb from Australia, Wayne Weightman of Cambodia, and myself. Voting is weighted by the number of votes cast in the Global Primary. Thailand, Japan, and Australia had more than 500 voters. India, land of a billion people, with perhaps 60,000 Americans, had fewer votes than Hong Kong. (If you think that India's ranking is too low, then help us double our numbers of registered voters from India in the next few months!)

It went to several rounds of voting, and many of the candidates were masterful campaigners. The only thing I could think to say to one of my colleagues was, Well, if it matters to you which country will go, then let me remind you that Indian Americans are the highest-income minority group in the US who need to be wooed by Democrats for the long term. (Only the US can produce a sixth-generation Chinese American, married to a French guy, who talks like an NRI). We went on to Round 4, and I crossed the threshold of more than 50% and won! It probably was my India stance that put me over the top. Or maybe it was my big sister who was there, going around giving family testimonials.

So I will be part of the Democrats Abroad delegation going to Denver for the Democratic Party National Convention! Like all the delegates, I carry a half vote. And though I'm waiting for Bill Clinton to call to try to persuade me otherwise – I'd decline the pitch but wouldn't mind the call – I am pledged to vote for Barack Obama.

Day Two – Global Convention

First order of business was to elect the rest of the pledged delegates from both Presidential Preference Groups (PPGs). In other words, those of us supporting Obama were caucusing in one room to choose delegates, and those of us supporting Clinton were caucusing in another room to choose delegates.

A calculus for elections is the male-female balance, since the delegation must be gender balanced. As each delegate got elected, we'd find out what the gender of the next delegate would have to be. In practice, it meant that once we got to the global level, women were running against women, men against men.

This really impacted the last two Obama delegates. The Clinton PPG elected one female and one male delegate. The Obama PPG was waiting for the result, which dictated that we elect two male delegates, no women. That was tough because not one woman was able to compete for the slot. Alternates were also elected. (A full list is posted separately.)

The second order of business – THE most important outcome of the entire three days from the Clinton and Obama campaigns' point of view – was the elections for the Rules, Credentials and Platform Committees at the Convention. If there is a floor battle for the nomination at the Convention, this fight will play out in the Credentials committee, and perhaps the Rules Committee. Since DA's global vote was 65% - 32% for Obama vs. Clinton, Obama supporters had the voting edge within our delegation – and we were supposed to see to it that the Credentials and Rules went to Obama. As was foreseen, Obama-pledged representatives won positions on the Credentials and Rules Committees, leaving the Platform Committee slot to the Clinton representative.

Day Three – Global Convention

We spent Day Two afternoon and Day Three morning working on DA's Platform 2008. I'm happy to report that India's planks, including one on the rights of Tibetans drafted by David Quegg, will be included in the final copy. When it's finished, it will be posted on the website for us to use for the next four years.

Three additional DNC members were elected to serve for four years starting at the close of the convention in Denver. Many of us were disappointed that our regional candidate lost in a close race. (The complete list of DNC representatives-elect is attached – they are part of the Denver Delegation as well, although they do not vote.)

We also passed India's resolutions regarding the Geneva Conventions and Humanitarian/ Development Assistance by the full leadership body at the global level, which is important procedurally in giving them great weight. I again want to thank Randy Ackley, Sergiu Troie, Steve Hollingworth and Adotei Akwei for their assistance with the ideas and drafting of these important resolutions. It has taken a full year, but we finally have gone from knowing these were important, to getting them fully endorsed. We should all be very proud of these contributions, which define what DA stands for.

Finally, we welcomed Vietnam as the newest DA country committee.

Winning the Presidency…

The Global Convention was a trip! Full of amazing people from dozens of countries, passionate in political beliefs, diverse in background, still competing for our candidates, yet unified in our opposition to Republican rule. Thank you for your participation in Democrats Abroad, which gave me a reason to go all the way to Vancouver. I am honored to serve as one of the 22 DA delegates to the National Convention.

There is much for us to do together to get out the vote for Democrats in the days ahead – and I'm looking forward to this!

To Democracy, and to a Democrat in the White House,

Carolyn Sauvage-Mar

Asia-Pacific Delegate-elect

Chair, DA India