6.5 Americans Live Overseas!

[politicus]

According to the International Herald Tribune, there is no exact count of Americans living overseas but it is estimated to be between 6 and 7 million!
If we were a state with a population of 6.5 million, we would be the thirteenth largest state just ahead of Massachusetts! Obviously, this is a huge number of voters that has to be reached.
See http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/04/business/NETVOTE07.php

Americans overseas directly experience the impact of America’s interventionist foreign policy and our country’s resultant loss of reputation overseas. Those of us who are paid in U.S. dollars pay the cost of the collapsing dollar.

It is imperative that we reach American voters overseas. Contacting people about Ron Paul can be done overseas, but it is different than contacting people back in the States. In every other country, we are in the minority which makes it difficult to identify Americans on the street. For example, here in Korea there is a large population of English teachers. The number of Canadian English teachers significantly outnumbers Americans.

It has been interesting to read about the lessons learned in Iowa and New Hampshire and the development of the Precinct Captain program. I don’t know if the campaign or anyone has voters lists that include overseas voters. Its seems logical that every individual county voter registration list would contain a list of absentee voters. Is it possible for the campaign can put together a list of voters by country? Could we apply the Precinct Captain program overseas?

There are hundreds of Ron Paul Meetup members in 30 countries around the world from Canada to Iraq. A list of the Europe-based Meetups can be seen here: http://www.ronpauleurope.net/ The London Meetup has 133 members, Toronto has 132 members, our Seoul Meetup has 48 members, and Baghdad, Iraq has 43 members.

Help us reach every American voter in the world! Please share any recommendations and best practices in this thread!

[Expat]

I posted this on your other 6.5 million thread (best to have just one, eh?!):

The expat vote spans the entire globe with probably a concentration in Europe and the military.

For the military, the HQ campaign could be placing regular ads in Stars and Stripes. If they have not already been doing so, this is a serious oversight (assuming it takes ads!). That one is read by hundreds of thousands.

For the Europeans: many read international publications like Time, Newsweek and especially the International Herald Tribune. A few ads there would help.

I don't think organising locally makes much sense since Americans are, except for the military, not living in local groups as Americans per se.

Something on the main website for expat voters would be good, with deadlines for registration for the general election, phone nrs and addresses to make applications etc.. Some of us have let our voter registration slip and it is a hassle to find out what to do to get it back.

But my best bet on this is: work the military. Many of them are very active online so it should be possible to put a good series of You Tubes into a package for them to read and share. Also add an Expat section to this forum with a Military subsection for them to network themselves intra-military.

When more Americans see how much support RP has amongst the military, then the notion of breaking down the Empire, leaving Iraq etc. can be seen as both intelligent AND patriotic, i.e. REAL flag-wavers who REALLY support the troops want to bring them home and in the process help America regain its lost reputation as a bastion of freedom, liberty, creativity, generosity etc. Now THAT is what most concerns Expats because they live with the consequences of US Empire policies every day. Some are part of the system, of course, but most are not.

another idea:

RP himself could make a 5-10 minute speech directly to the military, especially those serving abroad. This can be broadcast from the main website, into the Military section in the Forum and also put into various chat groups etc that many of them frequent. It will then spread around on its own. Then they need good links to get information on how to vote and for that someone will have to step forward as main Coordinator for the military abroad population to ensure this information is accurate and well organised.

The suggestion in the other thread about English Language teachers is excellent. Dave's ESL cafe has a huge international following of regular posters and would be very easy to advertise on and start threads in. They also have local forums already in place. And most of the people are young, though many of all ages. This is a very easy community to penetrate simply with good posts, links to good You Tube videos, and information on how to vote has to be researched and presented well.

[politicus]

Expat,

Thanks for your excellent suggestions.

I first put up this post in under Ron Paul International, but I realized that there just wasn't very much traffic here so I created a new one in Grassroots. Plus, I would like to hear everyone's suggestions, not just those of us who are overseas.

I wholeheartedly agree that the military are a natural constiuency. Servicemen are very passionate about their oath to uphold the Constitution.

It seems that most of our Seoul Meetup members are either active or former servicemen.

[Expat]

Well, it is easy to write helpful suggestions, but as I did so I realised that I would not be following through on them personally and wonder if anyone else will.

Both the military and TEFL communities have excellent self-existing communication infrastructure and should be very easy to penetrate via internet. In the US on-the-ground GOTV stuff has to happen, but in this case I think electronic media is the way to go.

I hope someone at HQ takes this up because it would really only take a few days to get going after which it will take on a life of its own as people in those particular communities get involved in spreading the message.

Anyway...

[noztnac]

Maybe advertise on Dave's ESL.

http://daveseslcafe.com/

[Expat]

Yes, Dave's is great. But the real question is who does it, how it is done and followed through on etc.

I suppose the libertarian approach is simply to get the message out there and let individuals take responsibility for following through. I am not sure if this is enough for election campaigns though which have to achieve very specific goals within very specific timeframes. Organisation is necessary not just enthusiasm.

[politicus]

Based on the above suggestion, I contacted the Advertising Director of Stars and Stripes concerning advertising rates. The Advertising Director informed me that his paper does not accept political ads.

The military does have strict rules about political advertising and campaigning. However, I believe that there are several chat rooms and forums that servicemen participate in.

[Expat]

I suspected that might be the case and hinted as much in my first post.

Good for you on following through. It occurred to me that. along the lines the RP campaign has endorsed all along, that no doubt there are already people within the military community who are self-networking. So perhaps no need to get into centralisationitis-conniption fits about it! On the other hand, one never knows. Perhaps it's worth putting out a call to some of the already-committed RP-ites in the military just to see if anything else could be done. Votes are votes and perhaps with some sort of additional thrust more service-men will feel inspired to vote for the campaign who right now are not so sure about it.

I also suspect that this Oversees vote will really come into play during the presidential election in November because it is only for that that the States send out the absentee ballots, I believe. (At least, that is all I have received from Hawaii (in 2004 and 2006) which was my last state of residency in the US. Maybe it's different with other States.)

[Expat]

In the ESL community there is bound to be some concern that if the US doesn't climb down from her hyper-aggressive Empire pedestal that their careers are in jeopardy because Asians especially might start to feel that English is not as valuable as has heretofore been the case. I mean, what if the Japanese and South Americans decide that Mandarin is really the foreign language to learn?

So maybe some anti-Empire ads in Dave's would be apropos?

[austin356]

Just an FYI;

To win the Republican nomination Ron will need around 6 Million votes nationwide.