Celebrities from the US and around the world have joined forces with global civic movement Avaaz to rally US citizens living abroad to vote against Donald Trump, by promoting an online tool that makes registering to vote easier than ever in the upcoming elections. Next week is the deadline for registering in critical swing states like Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Americans abroad are a massive but historically disengaged voter bloc that reports say could tip this year’s election. There are some 8 million citizens abroad, but just 12% of eligible voters turned out in 2012 (1).
Celebrities such as Leonardo Dicaprio, Barbara Streisand, Mark Ruffalo, Cher, George Takei, Olivia Wild, Gillian Anderson, Julia Stiles, Kristin Davis, Lana Parilla, Christina Applegate, Kristin Bauer, Michael Sheen, Adam McKay and Tony Goldwyn have joined the Avaaz campaign.
Avaaz’s United to Stop Trump campaign is the largest global citizens-powered get-out-the-vote effort in history, enlisting over 30 million people around the world to inspire American friends in their cities and towns to register to vote. The group kicked off the campaign with a new, easy-to-use voter registration tool, and an online ad strategy targeting seven of the top countries where most Americans abroad live.
The most common reason Americans abroad fail to vote is because they miss state voting registration deadlines, according to a recent survey by the U.S. Vote Foundation. The tool Avaaz has launched makes it easier than ever to vote by optimising the user experience, and removing unrequired fields and extraneous interfaces. The tool is also optimised for mobile use, and allows users who are too busy to register right away to sign up for reminders that encourage them to complete the process later.
The tool is available here: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/globalvote50/ . The Avaaz campaign is targeting countries where the most Americans abroad live, including Mexico, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Israel, and the Philippines.
