Votes from Americans in Canada expected to double from 2016

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Americans living in B.C. have had a record turnout, but a member of Democrats Abroad in Vancouver adds the achievement is particularly noteworthy considering American-Canadians were faced with many challenges.

Jennifer Phillips explains, despite the global COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. President Donald Trump’s attacks on vote-by-mail, and his administration’s attack on the US Postal Service, about 80 per cent of Democrats Abroad members requested their ballot.

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Phillips adds, there has also been a 94 per cent increase in membership since 2016.

“So, people are really excited.”

This year, Phillips says a large part of her job was educating voters in the province, especially since in-person registration events were not possible due to the pandemic.

“We want your vote to count because every vote matters,” she says.

“Every state has different guidelines and recommendations for their voters and that does make our job a little bit more challenging.”

This year, 620,000 US citizens were eligible to vote in Canada but in 2016 only about 5.3 per cent of them voted.

And this year, Phillips says she expects the voter turnout to double 2016 numbers.

“We’ve seen triple the traffic to our nonpartisan voting tool votes from democratsabroad.org, compared to 2016 so definitely people are feeling very enthusiastic and we’re excited to see the results of our hard work.”

– With files from Bethlehem Mariam 

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