With just two weeks to go until midterm elections in the United States, Bodil Geyer is hard at work making sure that all eligible Americans living in Canada get to vote.

An ex-patriate American, Geyer serves as the national GOTV (get out the vote) coordinator for Democrats Abroad-Canada, and notes that there’s been an increased attention in this election due to the polarizing influence of U.S. president Donald Trump.

“There's no doubt that Trump is front and centre in this election,” says Geyer. “Americans don’t want an autocracy, and they’re worried about their country. Voting legitimacy is an issue, too, but our message is that there's no point in worrying about any of that if you don't cast a ballot, that's the only thing we as regular citizens can do.”

Although regular voter registration deadlines may have already passed in many states, Geyer asserts that it’s not too late for Americans in Canada, who can still request an overseas ballot and vote using the Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot (FWAB),

“This late in the game, we’re sending people to votefromabroad.org to get a Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot (FWAB)”, says Geyer.  (the FWAB is also available at fvap.gov).

“One thing I always tell people—and this is really important—every voting district, across the United States, has an office, and if you go to votefromabroad.org, that's the most important website out there–it gives you every single deadline, every single recourse in any ballot matter, it gives you who to call in your home state, all of that, and it's non-partisan.”

According to the non-partisan Federal Voting Assistance Program, operated by the U.S. government, there are about 180,000 voting age Americans in Vancouver, and about 700,000 across all of Canada.

To help them vote by mail, Democrats Abroad set up a huge call centre in Toronto earlier this fall.

“It's the first one we've ever done, we had a cross-country effort in developing volunteers, we hired a campaign manager, and set up a real war room, so to speak. We ended up reaching out to tens of thousands of Democrats in Canada and either got them either registered or helped them with their ballots.”

Similar drives are also occurring at local levels, with chapters of Democrats Abroad organizing voting drives in their own individual cities.

“Our Canada-wide leadership is really great,” Geyer says, “and locally there's been a ton of very successful local campaign events and phone banks under the current leadership of Democrats Abroad—Vancouver. They've been at every major political rally, from March On to Pride. They’ve also done a really good job of getting students mobilized, and having a presence at every possible place that an American could be, especially politically-motivated ones.”

Between the national organization and city chapters, Geyer estimates that the Democrats Abroad has helped register more than 20,000 Americans to vote in Canada during this election cycle. Worldwide, she says the number is more like 100,000.

“These are the kind of numbers that helped elect Bill Clinton and affected the re-election of Barack Obama, in key states where the vote difference may have come down to 3,000 people,” Geyer says. “But as much as we’ve done, we still need volunteers - the next couple of weeks are a real crunch time for us, and we’re going to need all the help we can get. If you go to www.democratsabroad.org/ca  you’ll see a big button saying "Take Action", and I’d like to encourage everyone to check it out and look at the volunteer opportunities.”

 One benefit of absentee ballots, Geyer points out, is that they have a high margin of safety because they’re mailed in, and there’s a verifiable paper trail. And to make things even easier, some states even allow for fax or email ballots.

“It’s tough with all the interference going on—voter registers getting wiped out, electronics being hacked—but mail ballots can give you some heart, you're not dealing with a voting machine, and you get to participate in the old-fashioned way of voting.”

Of course, some races are tighter than others, and Geyer says that it’s especially important that absentee voters in certain states get their ballots in as soon as possible.

“Florida, Texas, and San Diego are important,” she says, “but also, basically, is the entire Midwest. There are also states that have been compromised, where Democrats could have won—or it would have been  close—and now we don't know what's going to happen. There’s a lot of disenfranchisement, like in North Dakota where senator Heidi Heitkamp is about to lose an election because thousands of Indigenous people have been prevented from voting.”

Despite all the reports of meddling, Geyer is optimistic about registration and notes that Democrats Abroad can help with any voting problems. If American voters in Canada find they’re having trouble getting the information they need from votefromabroad.org or fvap.gov—or if they live in a community affected by a postal strike—she recommends they visit democratsabroad.org/ca and send the organization an email.

 "It might be easy to get discouraged when 10, 12, 15 states are showing signs of voter interference," she says, "but overseas voters have specific voting rights–we’re here to help.”

 While there will be no physical American polling places in Vancouver on Tuesday, November 6^th, Geyer says that doesn’t mean there still can’t be a local celebration.

 “We’re having two election return watching parties, one at Rogue at the convention Centre [200 Burrard Street] and one at at Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood Pub [3728 Clark Drive], Both start at 6PM on Tuesday, November 6^th, and all are welcome.”