MONTREAL, Canada, Oct. 21, 2024 — The 4.4 million Americans living abroad represent an essential voting bloc in the upcoming presidential election, with almost 3 million of them of voting age.

In Canada, approximately 600,000 American citizens living “up North” are eligible to vote, yet many don’t. In the 2016 presidential election, 6.9% of eligible overseas voters participated and only 3.4% voted in 2022.

McGill University student Jacob Wesoky volunteers as the executive vice chair for Democrats Abroad Canada. His goal: Reach potential voters, convince them to make a difference and help simplify the often-complicated procedure to submit a ballot from another country.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

What is Democrats Abroad’s primary goal?

In the 2020 election, Americans living overseas were the margin of victory for Biden in Georgia and Arizona. Only a small percentage voted, so our goal is to increase that turnout.

How do you accomplish that?

We do a lot of education and outreach through the press, Google ads, and billboards at border crossings. Some of these billboards specifically target voters from certain states, with messages like “Michigan voters in Windsor/Essex can make the difference! votefromabroad.org.”

The Democratic Party estimates that about 1.6 million Americans abroad are from battleground states like Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Nevada. What proportion of Americans in Canada are from swing states?

I’d say the biggest swing state for Americans living in Canada is Michigan. It’s the state we’re focusing on for this election. Many dual citizens work in Detroit while living across the border in Windsor.

What are the main challenges in convincing people to register to vote?

The knowledge gap. Many people don’t know that they can vote from abroad, or if they do, they don’t know how. Even though the right to vote from abroad is federally protected, some county officials get confused or provide the wrong information when receiving overseas ballot requests. That’s why we direct everyone to votefromabroad.org, where our volunteers help people navigate these potential issues.

What are Americans living in Canada most concerned about in the upcoming election?

I think there are significant economic concerns since our economies are so interlinked. All the issues that matter in the U.S. are also important to Americans living abroad. We care about reproductive freedom, environmental issues, and gun violence prevention. For many of us living abroad, the U.S. is still home.

If you could change anything to make absentee voting more accessible for Americans, what would you improve?

I want overseas voters to be able to submit their ballots electronically and securely. It should be a federally protected right.