A bipartisan voters’ workshop to assist U.S. citizens in requesting or sending in their absentee ballots for the upcoming U.S. presidential election attracted about 30 people Thursday to the American Society of Jalisco (Amsoc) in Guadalajara.
The event was sponsored by the Chapala area chapter of Democrats Abroad, which sent three volunteers to assist, complete with laptops, a printer, literature, mailing envelopes and expertise.
“I had the sense that most of the people who came were voting for Clinton, although we helped everyone who wanted it,” said one of the volunteers, Larry Pihl. Mitchell Perey and Jude Wallesen were also on hand as expert assistants.
“There were at least five women with babies,” noted Cam Esser of Amsoc. “Some of them heard about it through groups that were new to me, such as Guadalajara Moms on Facebook and Women Helping Women Guadalajara.
One such person was Turkish-American Sezin Demircioglu, who said she is living here for a year with her Tapatio husband, whom she met in New York.
Some people came because they had begun the process earlier but ran into snags. “It just took me a few minutes to straighten things out,” said Jay Moskovic. “It was easy.”
After the session Pihl and Perey dropped off a large sack of sealed envelopes at the U.S. Consulate in Guadalajara, which has offered to include stamped or prepaid envelopes containing ballots or ballot requests in their regular mail shipments.
Pihl said there is still time to vote absentee and suggested the website VoteFromAbroad.org. He urged voters with questions to contact him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..