Democrats Abroad Mexico is the official organization of the Democratic Party in Mexico; connecting Americans with US politics and the Democratic Party; registering, informing, and motivating voters; supporting candidates, holding events, and raising resources. Mexico has five chapters: Lake Chapala, Mexico City, San Miguel de Allende, Costa Banderas and Mazatlan.

Democrats Abroad is the official Democratic Party organization for the millions of Americans living outside the United States. We work to advance the principles of our Party by spreading the Democratic message to Americans abroad and encouraging them to vote for Democratic candidates back home.

Democrats Abroad has committees throughout Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. These Country Committees keep Americans abroad informed of their rights and help them participate in the U.S. political process. A small support office is maintained in Washington, D.C.

Democrats Abroad is recognized as a "state" Party by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and is represented on the DNC by eight voting members, as well as at the quadrennial Democratic National Convention.

For the purposes of conducting business, Democrats Abroad is a non-profit association organized and operating under the Uniform Unincorporated Nonprofit Association Act of 2000, D.C. Code 29-971.01 et seq. Democrats Abroad's principal place of business is the District of Columbia.

The governing body of Democrats Abroad is the Democratic Party Committee Abroad (DPCA), which oversees Democrats Abroad's activities. To avoid confusion between local committees and the international body, we refer to our international body as the DPCA, but are known collectively as Democrats Abroad by the general public and media.The DPCA is comprised of the Chair and Vice Chair of each Country Committee, and the elected international officers of the DPCA (International Chair, International Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Counsel, Regional Vice Chairs), as well as the six representatives of Democrats Abroad to the DNC. (The remaining two members of the DNC from Democrats Abroad are the International Chair and International Vice Chair.)

Democrats Abroad Achievements

Since our founding in 1964, Democrats Abroad has been very active on the national and international scene. Among its achievements, Democrats Abroad has been instrumental in:

• Securing voting rights for US citizens abroad through the Overseas Citizens Voting Rights Act of 1975.

• Obtaining passage of the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act in 1986.

• Making sure every vote counts and is counted; furthering voting reform through the Emergency Committee to Reform Overseas Voting, created in November 2000 by Democrats Abroad. The Emergency Committee successfully lobbied Congress for improvements in the Help America Vote Act.

• Initiating the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot, which allows voters to cast ballots when the absentee ballots have not arrived in time from their home states.

• Defending the rights of Americans living and working abroad by preventing the loss of their U.S. citizenship.

• Ensuring easier transmission of American citizenship to children born abroad.

•Fighting for Social Security and Medicare coverage for eligible Americans abroad.

• Fighting to avoid double taxation of Americans abroad by defending the foreign earned income tax exclusion (Section 911) and obtaining fairer treatment of U.S. taxpayers residing abroad.
• Creating firsthand contact with presidential candidates through conference calls with Democrats Abroad members living in Europe, the Americas and Asia.

• Helping to register voters by the thousand during the first worldwide Overseas Voter Weekend in 2004.

• Ensuring that voting forms were reprinted by the Federal Voting Assistance Program to meet the increased demand during the 2004 presidential election.

• Successfully removing restrictions on access to the Federal Voting Assistance Program's website, www.fvap.gov, by overseas Internet providers.

• Tracking and refuting illegal voting requirements (such as the LA County imposition in 2004 of an ID requirement for overseas voters).

• Ensuring that accurate and helpful information is available to Voting Assistance Officers and embassies and consulates through a network of DPCA Consular Liaisons.

• Creating effective lines of communication with senior election offices in each of the fifty states and the District of Columbia through a team of 51 volunteers, and developing a library of states and issues.

• Launched (in 2006) its on-line voter registration engine www.VoteFromAbroad.org. It allows the voter to download a write-in ballot with the voter's information included so that it is merely a matter of voting, signing and mailing, when the official state ballot doesn't arrive in time. Available in both English and Spanish.

• Initiated three resolutions adopted by the Democratic National Committee, concerning thirty years of overseas voting (April 2006), opposing the use of torture (August 2006) and restoring the writ of habeas corpus (February 2007).

• Adopted resolutions on Troop Buildup in Iraq, a Proactive Policy on the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process, on Climate Change, and on resolution military and veterans' health care.