On a cold afternoon in central London, the battle for the US presidential election is being waged with no much less fervour than if the campaigners had been on the opposite facet of the Atlantic.

Surrounded by posters for the Democratic ticket of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, volunteers at an workplace organised by Democrats Overseas have been hitting the telephones, calling Individuals residing overseas, together with wavering Republicans, to induce them to register to vote.

The occasion was only one that occurred on a Day of Motion at areas across the UK, estimated to be house to as many as 200,000 Individuals.

By night, the London activists had a shock go to from Nancy Pelosi, former speaker of the Home of Representatives, who had initially been billed to affix a zoom rally which was joined by different chapters primarily based in areas starting from Scotland to English college cities.

“Many people have been residing overseas for years, even a long time, however we care deeply about what’s at stake again house and we additionally need it to be a spot that we nonetheless recognise once we return, whether or not that’s a rustic the place democracy has been preserved and even one that’s nonetheless protected on the subject of the rights of girls, our sisters and our daughters,” stated Kristin Wolfe, Chair of Democrats Overseas UK and a resident in London since 2007.

The potential function of abroad Individuals voters – who don’t seem in nationwide polls – shouldn’t be underestimated. In 2020 their votes made all of the distinction when it got here to delivering the important thing swing states of Arizona and Georgia to Joe Biden.

With the race so tight and the stakes this excessive – Wolfe’s voice cracks as she insists that US democracy is imperilled in a method not seen for the reason that American civil battle – Harris supporters within the UK have raised their recreation.

At bus shelters in elements of London with increased concentrations of Individuals you’ll discover adverts positioned strategically by the group. For the primary time too, digital promoting aimed on the group is being deployed on Google.

There are additionally efforts to achieve out and encourage voter registration nose to nose, reminiscent of at freshers’ gala’s in Oxford. On different latest weekend afternoons, activists arrange open-air tables in Hyde Park and at Marylebone Farmer’s Market in London to catch any passing Individuals.

Amongst curious passersby who stopped on the market desk was the British pop star, Harry Kinds, though the singer isn’t recognized to have a US passport.

That stated, Democrats within the UK have instantly discovered an area movie star of their very own within the type of Matt Klaber, who was a scholar at the highschool the place Tim Walz as soon as taught and who lately spoke in London at a “re-watch” of the vice-presidential debate.

Klaber – a London-based software program engineer and Democratic activist – additionally performed a task in Walz’s personal political “origin story” when he took college students to see a George W Bush marketing campaign rally in 2004, just for a few of them to be turned away by organisers who believed they had been Democrats. The expertise led Walz to hunt public workplace.

A kind of college students was Klaber, who insists that Walz’s healthful public persona is strictly true to the one he and others have lengthy recognized in particular person.

“My earliest recollection of Tim is of being within the faculty library and seeing him rush out along with his jacket and briefcase as a result of he was being activated as a nationwide guardsman who was going to assist lead the response to some flooding,” he says.

“The entire marketing campaign metaphor of being a coach might need been a bit overseas to me as I wasn’t essentially into sports activities, however really they’ve nailed it. He’s everyone’s coach, whether or not it’s what he was doing when he was a trainer, what he did in 2004 when there was the incident on the rally, or what he’s doing now by stepping up.”

Efforts by Democrats Overseas UK to mobilise US voters within the UK and elsewhere are taking over a brand new urgency as registration deadlines loom for states together with Wisconsin (16 October) and Pennsylvania (21 October).

So too are efforts to counter misinformation within the type of deceptive claims by Donald Trump that Democrats had been someway making ready to “cheat” and that ballots had been being despatched abroad with out correct checks.

“That’s simply so blatantly false as a result of the reality is that processes of probably the most rigorous sort are in place,” stated Wolfe, who accuses Trump of looking for to deliberately confuse and mislead as a result of he’s involved in regards to the potential impression of abroad voters.