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US political parties target voters living overseas
By DAVID STRINGER
Associated Press
September 26, 2008
LONDON (AP) -- Former Vice President Al Gore and actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Hudson swept into London on Thursday amid an intensifying battle for the donations -- and votes -- of Americans living overseas.
The actresses and the defeated 2000 Democratic presidential candidate joined Democrats in Britain for a series of events to raise money for Sen. Barack Obama's presidential election campaign. A lunch, dinner and meetings in the British capital were part of a strategy aimed at boosting the number of votes cast by American expatriates.
Bill Bernard, chairman in Britain of Democrats Abroad, the overseas arm of the Democratic Party, said activists were chasing the ballots of an estimated 300,000 potential voters in the U.K.
Americans living overseas can vote in their home states by mail and can offer donations to campaign funds. Around 6 million U.S. voters live overseas. Democrats Abroad said that only around 1 million voted in the 2004 election.
Bernard said that both Democrats and Republican Party activists had increased their efforts to court voters overseas since the 2004 presidential election.
"There are voters here in Britain from battleground states like Florida and Ohio, and when you remember what happened in Florida ... it's clear small numbers of votes can make a difference," Bernard said.
In London, Democratic activists were canvassing in districts of London with large American communities, including the leafy northern suburb of Hampstead and South Kensington, home to most of the capital's museums. They also targeted key university cities, including Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh.
Republicans have targeted Americans working in London's Canary Wharf financial district, said Miki Bowman, head of the British branch of Republicans Abroad.
"Every single day for the last two or three weeks we've been registering voters," Bowman said. "The lessons have been learned from 2000, that the ex-pat vote can be critical."
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