Democrats Abroad Thailand: March 2008

The Democrats Abroad Thailand polling place at the Starbucks in Nongkhai (set up by Mike Carroll and his team in NE Thailand) continues to be famous -- even the New York Times has included it. An interesting article, and a good overview of what we are trying to accomplish -- turning out as many Democrats as possible to vote from overseas and influence elections -- and make sure that there are never any repeats like Florida 2000, when absentee ballots voted for the GOP swung the balance...

New York Times
March 16, 2008

Forget Iowa. How About That Antarctica Vote?

By LESLIE WAYNE

LONDON — They call themselves residents of the “51st State,” which is a broad territory that covers all continents, counts around six million Americans and displays a passionate interest in the Democratic match-up between Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Democrats Abroad, a branch of the Democratic Party with members in over 100 countries, is in the middle of the same race for delegates and heated debates over who should be the party’s nominee as Democrats in the United States. The only difference is that their politicking may take place in a pub in Ireland or a Starbucks in Thailand.

And with 11 delegate votes that will be under its control at the party’s convention, Democrats Abroad is more than a debating society. It is an increasingly vibrant wing of the Democratic Party, particularly as more Americans fan out across the globe yet seek to maintain their voice in the politics back home.

“Years ago, we were just a small group of people in London and Paris,” said William D. Barnard, chairman of Democrats Abroad U.K. “When we held a primary, it meant that everyone met in a pub or a bar and cast a vote. Now, it’s incredible. With the historic nature of the campaigns and the closeness of it, we’ve changed the way we operate.”

Democrats Abroad was started in 1964 and gained voting delegates to the party’s convention in 1976. But as recently as 2004, overseas voting in the primaries took place in caucuses, where Democrats had to show up in person — difficult for such a far-flung group.

This year, the Democratic National Committee held its first ever “Global Democratic Primary,” where Democrats could vote in person, by mail, by fax and, unlike in the United States, over the Internet.

And vote they did: A total of 22,715 Democrats in 164 countries cast their ballots in a primary planned to coincide with the coast-to-coast nominating contests on Feb. 5.

Senator Obama, of Illinois, gained a lopsided victory; he took 66 percent of the total and gained three delegate votes, to the one and a half delegate votes for Senator Clinton, of New York. All told, 22 Democrats Abroad delegates will attend the party’s national convention this summer in Denver, each representing a half-vote when superdelegates and others are included.

Primary votes came from as far away as Antarctica, where an American researcher at McMurdo Station was able to vote online. In Thailand, voting took place at a Starbucks at the Laotian border. In New Delhi, voters met at a restaurant called Ploof, where they voted upstairs and celebrated downstairs.

Here in London, more than 1,800 Democrats crammed into Porchester Hall. Fire marshals had to keep people moving in and out to comply with safety regulations.

This weekend, Democrats from 30 countries will meet in Brussels to select a total of nine at-large delegates from three global regions. This will be followed next month by a global convention in Vancouver, British Columbia, to complete the delegate selection process.

“A lot of people would have voted in the past, but the party did not reach out to them,” said Karin Robinson, who heads the Obama effort in London. “People living overseas for a long time felt disconnected or didn’t know how to vote. But we are now adding to the total votes available to the party, and the Democrats are looking wherever they can for new votes.”

A parallel group, Republicans Abroad, is not affiliated with the Republican Party and has no representatives or votes at the party’s convention. The Republican Party does not offer primary voting overseas and instead encourages party members to vote by absentee ballot.

For their part, Democrats Abroad say they could play a crucial role in the general election, when all overseas voting is done by absentee ballot. Around 330,000 overseas ballots were cast in the 2006 election, according to the United States Election Assistance Commission.

A Web site — www.votefromabroad.org — was set up by the Democratic Party to help potential voters with navigating the registration and absentee ballot processes. The idea behind the site, besides making absentee voting easier, is to break what many Democrats overseas say is a “myth” that their absentee votes do not count.

Overseas Democrats say their votes can make the difference in highly competitive races. They point out that in the 2000 presidential election, George W. Bush credited his victory in Florida to 537 votes from overseas Republicans. Democrats Abroad say votes from Virginia residents living overseas provided the margin of victory for Jim Webb in the state’s Senate race in 2006, which helped to shift control of the chamber to the Democrats.

“Overseas votes can make a difference,” said Margo Miller, co-chairwoman of Americans Abroad for Hillary Clinton. “If you look at victories in some of the close races in 2006, votes from abroad had something to do with it.”

Traditionally, Americans abroad have often been looked at as a quick source of campaign cash. That tradition has continued, as both Michelle Obama and former President Bill Clinton flew to London late last year to hold fund-raisers for their spouses’ campaigns. By the end of 2007, the Obama campaign had raised $462,340 overseas and the Clinton campaign had taken in $435,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit group in Washington that collects campaign finance data.

But even more, the campaigns are taking advantage of this new international enthusiasm by trolling for votes. Overseas Democrats say that they have seen firsthand the effects of Mr. Bush’s foreign policy and, for that reason, are highly motivated to capture the White House.

From “Meet-ups in Mumbai” to “speakeasies” at restaurants and pubs around the globe, Democrats have come up with ways to talk politics and socialize. In England, home to around 300,000 Americans, more than 150 events have been organized, including movie screenings and political debates.

The Obama campaign has focused on overseas fund-raising — and the fact that a sinking dollar makes donations seem relatively cheap. In addition, the campaign has organized international conference calls with key staff members to connect overseas voters with key players during the Iowa, South Carolina and Texas primaries.

At American sporting events — for instance, when the National Football League and the National Hockey League played overseas exhibition games — the Obama campaign sent out volunteers with clipboards to find supporters.

The Clinton campaign, which has strong followings in Israel, the Dominican Republic and the Philippines, has followed a similar strategy. Democrats in 25 cities in 14 countries on 6 continents participated in a conference call with the campaign’s chairman, Terry McAuliffe. Other international conference calls featured the Clinton strategist Ann Lewis and Richard C. Holbrooke, a former ambassador in the Clinton administration. Another conference call with Mr. Clinton connected Democrats in 30 countries.

Democrats say they are so energized by the race this year that the feeling can be quite contagious — even to their foreign friends.

“The saddest letters that I have to write,” said Mr. Barnard, the head of Democrats Abroad U.K., “are to my British friends who wish us well and want to contribute their money or their time. And I have to tell them that they can’t.”