American volunteers helping students vote from abroad: 'I just really believe in the right to vote'

Volunteers from non-partisan organizations have been helping US citizens in Barcelona and Spain navigate the paperwork and procedures of voting from abroad in the buildup to November's presidential election in the country. 

A group of five volunteers from VoteFromAbroad.org and Rock The Vote Spain set up a table in CocoVail Beer Hall in the centre of Barcelona for their last major event ahead of the election, following months of hard work at similar events sharing information and helping thousands of people partake in the democratic process from Catalonia. 

The group and events are explicitly non-partisan, meaning no party affiliation is displayed, and the group's sole purpose is to share information on people's right to vote and help them with that process if needs be. 

"We reach out to American students who are studying in Barcelona," Annie Graul, a volunteer with the organizations who has been living in Barcelona for 35 years, tells Catalan News. "Barcelona is a super popular destination for college students and there are dozens of programs in Barcelona, and most of these kids come here and don’t know they can vote, or they might have heard they can vote but they don’t know the right procedure to do it."

The volunteers visit the university programs and explain to the students how to register to vote and at events like the one in CocoVail, they explain to them how to return their ballots. The process for returning ballots is different for all 50 states, and requires not only knowledge but also training that the group have all received from the US Consulate. 

"There’s a lot of responsibility that comes with being an American citizen," Annie Graul explains, "but there’s also a right that comes with being an American citizen, which is the right to vote, and students who come overseas don’t lose that right just because they’re off campus."

Another volunteer at CocoVail, Robert Gerrard, who has been living in the Catalan capital for two and a half years, has participated in around two dozen such events helping people understand better the process of voting from abroad. 

He tells Catalan News that he "really believe[s] in the right to vote for everyone," a sentiment that has been fuelled by seeing "the fall of democracies in the past, and I just think it’s the most cherished institution, voting and representative democracy.

"Many people don’t know you have the right to vote when you’re an American living abroad. I like to work very hard to make sure."

He estimates that he has personally spoken with 200-300 people in the past events, and says that that number could be doubled or tripled to count roughly how many people the organizations in total have helped navigate the process of voting abroad. 

The groups currently have no more events scheduled before the election, but they explain that more useful information can still be found for Americans looking to vote from abroad at votefromabroad.org, or a subpage specifically for students at students.votefromabroad.org.

At those sites, "you can request your ballot, you can register to vote, and you can also fill out your backup ballot," Gerrard says. "If there are issues with returning your ballot you always have a break-glass option of returning your backup ballot. We always suggest to people, if it gets to be too late, that's always an option, and make your vote count."