FRANCE: U.S SUPPORTERS OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY RALLY IN PARIS FOR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE JOHN KERRY

Record ID: 215545

  • Title: FRANCE: U.S SUPPORTERS OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY RALLY IN PARIS FOR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE JOHN KERRY
  • Date: 28th October 2004
  • Summary: (EU) PARIS, FRANCE (RECENT) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE OF EIFFEL TOWER PAN DOWN TO CROWD AT RALLY 0.01 2. WIDE OF CROWD, PAN TO SPEAKER WITH MEGAPHONE 0.18 3. WIDE OF PEOPLE WITH PEACE PLACARD 0.23 4. CLOSE OF PLACARD EXPRESSING ANTI-BUSH SENTIMENTS WITH PHOTO OF BUSH READING "WANTED FOR CRIMES AGAINST THE PLANET" 0.27 5.
  • Embargoed: 12th November 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PARIS, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVA7A0DGO8J3P8S4J2XJWBVVRRMZ
  • Story Text: Democrats living in France have engaged in an unprecedented
    effort to register Americans for the upcoming election and to
    persuade them to cast their ballot for John Kerry.



    As the November 2 election approaches, Democrats in
    France have been multiplying events and efforts in support
    of John Kerry, hoping their message will help persuade both
    the expatriate and the home community to refuse a second
    chance to the incumbent George W Bush.

    In an election where both parties stress the need to
    get out the vote, Americans living abroad have found
    themselves the focus of an unprecedented voter registration
    drive as absentee ballots take on higher prominence.

    After concentrating their efforts for several weeks on
    getting people to send their ballot requests back to the
    states before the deadlines, Democrats living in France,
    who traditionally outnumber Republicans by about 10 to 1,
    are now appealing to their country fellows at home to vote
    for Kerry in a massive way.

    Button-festooned supporters holding American flags and
    banners gathered underneath the Eiffel Tower to offer
    everyone a one-minute chance to grab a loudspeaker and
    explain to Americans at home the reasons why they should
    vote, and why they should vote for Kerry.

    "I've never been more sad than I am right now about the
    direction that George Bush has taken our country. But more
    so, more than that, I've never been more disappointed in
    one half of the American people who think that George Bush
    is doing a great job", said one of the Democrats at the
    event.

    A female student made a passionate call to young people
    to remove George W Bush as the chief of the Armed Forces:
    "I was born and raised in Washington DC and I go to school
    at the University of Michigan and my best friend is in his
    third year at the US academy for military service at
    West-Point New York. He said that he was a soldier and
    like the rest of his classmates, he would obey all the
    orders that his government asked him to perform, and he did
    not want George Bush to be his commander in Chief", she
    said.

    The registration campaigns have largely been carried
    out on the Internet, but more than 200,000 Americans around
    the world have actually registered at voter registration
    tables manned by one or the other party. Some 10,000 of
    those happened in France.

    "Everyone's registered but people still have to vote
    especially from abroad and it's sending a message back to
    America, sending a message back to the people that are
    living in America right now, saying we're here, we're here,
    from England, France, Indonesia, I don't know where else,
    and we're going to vote with you and we're there with you,
    so it's more of a message now. All our voter
    registrations, all of those events, 'Take back the
    congress', the time's up for that, but now it's still time
    to let people know that we're all in this together", said
    Sheila Sharem, a young Democrat from Texas.

    Other events organised by Democrats included several
    fund-raising dinners. At Joe Allen restaurant in Paris, one
    of those was held under the motto "Take back the Congress".

    "I think what we want people to understand is that we
    need both the presidency, we need the executive and the
    congress if we're going to move forward and try to build up
    some positive policies for our children and the next
    generation. It's not just about being negative, it's not
    just about trying to stop what's going on in Iraq, it's not
    trying to just stop this current President's policies, it's
    trying to start over and do something positive", Edwin Lao explained
    to Reuters Television after the dinner.

    Americans have been living overseas as long as the
    country has existed. But they were not eligible to vote
    until the Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Rights Act
    passed in 1975. Even after that, few of the 6 to 7 million
    of Americans living abroad thought that their votes
    mattered.

    But this time Democrats who believe the votes of
    expatriates could decide a close presidential election,
    hope that the mounting problems in Iraq will motivate
    overseas residents who may not have voted for years to come
    out the woodwork and cast their absentee ballot for Kerry.

    State figures in the 2000 election show that Bush won 739
    more overseas votes than Al Gore on ballots that arrived
    after Election Day. Without that margin, the president
    would have lost Florida by 202 votes to Gore. Instead, Bush
    carried the state by 537 votes.


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