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Toronto, Canada.- More than half a million Americans in Canada can vote in the US presidential elections And the virtual tie between Kamala Harris y Donald Trump In the polls, more than ever, a handful of expatriates can decide who is the next president of the country.
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Steve Nardi, an American living in Canada, is the international vice president of the Democrats Abroad (DA) organization and one of the volunteers who is working to make it easier for his compatriots to vote from abroad.
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“It is estimated that there are between 600,000 and 650,000 potential voters in Canada. There are more voters in Canada than in Minnesota. So every vote is critical. When Joe Biden won Georgia in 2020, he won by about 11,500 votes. And from abroad he received (in the state) 18,000 votes,” he explains to EFE.
Two CNN and New York Times polls show a very close tie between Trump and Harris
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Official data from the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP), the US federal agency that makes it easier for Americans living abroad to vote in elections, estimates that 2.9 million US voters live outside the country. And in 2020, of that number, some 226,000 expats voted.
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Canada is the country with the most Americans with the right to vote, 516,309, according to its latest figures from the 2020 elections. The United Kingdom is second with 327,245 and Israel is third with 183,499.
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In 2020, 8% of those half a million Americans in Canada voted in the presidential elections. And according to data managed by Democrats Abroad, 95% of those votes were for Joe Biden.
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With just a few days left before the November 5 elections, DA volunteers are searching for Americans in Canada even under the rocks. In Toronto, Julie Buchanan has been organizing meetings in coffee shops for weeks to help those who want to vote and have questions or don’t know how to do so.
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Other DA volunteers stand on strategic streets in the city, where an estimated 100,000 Americans live, with a US flag, to attract the attention of their compatriots. And in the Canadian town of Windsor, located across from Detroit, for the first time in history Nardi and a group of volunteers are going house to house to locate Americans and encourage them to vote, regardless of who they support although, of course, the hope is that they will do it for the Democratic candidate and current vice president, Kamala Harris.
What are the immigration plans of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump?
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Kelly Paulette is an American who has lived in Canada for 50 years. Last weekend he attended one of the meetings organized by Buchanan to ensure that his ballot reaches his home state of Connecticut. “I’m here to help me,” he explains to EFE.
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Paulette does not hide who she is going to vote for. “Kamala is a wonderful person. I think people will be much safer with it. And when I say people I mean everyone, whether they live in the United States or the rest of the world.”
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In his Deep South accent, Buchanan expresses dismay that only a small fraction of his compatriots living abroad will vote on November 5.
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“I’m a little worried that people aren’t taking it seriously enough because we’ve already lived through four years of the Trump presidency,” he tells EFE. And he adds that living abroad has changed his perspective, which helps explain why. the majority of votes that come from abroad go to Democratic candidates.
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“It has a huge impact on how the world sees itself and how the world sees America. It has changed me a lot. “I’m from Alabama and I don’t think I would be doing all this work for Democrats if I lived there,” he emphasizes.
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Alex Maynard, another volunteer who helps people like Paulette cast their vote, agrees with Buchanan that living outside the United States influences political perspective: “From the outside you see global issues like climate change or trade relations in a different way.” ”, he assures.
