TERMS OF SERVICE

Last updated May 10, 2022.  Replaces all prior versions.

IMPORTANT – READ CAREFULLY: THESE TERMS OF SERVICE APPLY TO ALL USES OF THE VFA WEBSITE, INCLUDING BROWSING, REGISTERING A VOTER ACCOUNT, AND USING VFA SERVICES ANONYMOUSLY WITHOUT REGISTERING A VOTER ACCOUNT.

The services offered through the Vote From Abroad (“VFA”) website are provided to you by the Democratic Party Committee Abroad (referred to herein as “Democrats Abroad” or “we”), doing business as Democrats Abroad, a non-profit political committee organized under the laws of the District of Columbia (Washington DC), United States of America, and registered with the Federal Election Commission. Democrats Abroad is the official Democratic Party organization for millions of Americans living outside the United States.

What is Vote From Abroad? VFA is a nonpartisan voter registration and overseas ballot request service available to all overseas United States citizens and military voters. Our services are nonpartisan because we will not withhold or refuse to provide our services to anyone on the basis of support for or opposition to particular candidates, or on the basis of party affiliation. We want you to exercise your right to vote as an American citizen regardless of your party affiliation or lack thereof.

As defined in Section 1 below, our services are offered subject to your compliance with all of the terms and conditions contained herein (the “Agreement”) and all other agreements including the VFA Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy. 

Please note: In exchange for our permission to use VFA services free of charge, this Agreement contains important limitations on your legal rights. These limitations are material conditions of this Agreement, and if you do not agree to be bound by them, you may not, and you should not, use VFA services (“Services”). By way of example and without limitation, these conditions include:

1. You agree that VFA may send you emails related to your use of our Services (Secs. 3.8);

2. Use restrictions for children under the age of 18 (Sec. 4);
   

3. Restrictions on your conduct and your expectation of privacy when you use the Services (Secs. 5, 6);
   

4. Your agreement to indemnify Democrats Abroad for harm you cause (Sec. 11);
   

5. Your consent to our collection, processing, storing and deletion of your personally identifiable information based on the way you choose to use the Services (Secs. 1-4, 15; VFA Privacy Policy; VFA Cookie Policy);
   

6. Limitation of our liability for any damages you incur while using the Services (Sec. 16);
   

7. Waiver of your right to file or join a class action claim against Democrats Abroad (Sec.16.5);
   

8. Re-permissioning communications: When we amend our Terms of Service, the VFA Privacy Policy, or the VFA Cookie Policy, you consent to receiving “re-permissioning” communications from us. In other words, we may contact you by email to inform you of the amendment and seek your affirmative consent to the amended terms (Sec. 17.7);
   

9. Your agreement to apply the laws of Washington DC, United States of America, to this Agreement and to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of courts located in Washington D.C. (Sec. 17.8).

Questions. If you have any questions about this Agreement, please send an email to: help@VoteFromAbroad.org. You may also contact us directly by US mail at: Democrats Abroad, PO Box 15130, Washington, DC 20003, USA.

1. Description of Services; Acceptance of Binding Agreement

1.1  To access and use VFA Services (as defined below), you must agree to, and follow, the terms and conditions set forth in these Terms of Service. By using any of VFA’s Services, you are agreeing to these terms. Please carefully read through this Agreement.

1.2  VFA Services  The VFA site offers a variety of nonpartisan voter registration and get-out-the-vote services including, but not limited to: (a) state-specific voter registration information (including voter registration, ballot request, and ballot submission deadlines); (b) state-specific voter eligibility requirements as prescribed by law; (c) information on the names and addresses of local election officials (LEOs); (d) state-specific information on the legally accepted means to transmit your voter materials to your LEO; (e) access to our voter material preparation tool that allows you to quickly, easily, and accurately prepare your voter materials online and either (1) direct VFA to submit your forms by email to your LEO or (2) print or download your voter materials if your state requires submission by fax or postal mail; (f) access to our Voter Help Desk for customer service inquiries or to answer questions about overseas voting; and (g) any other services identified in this Agreement or offered on the VFA website.

1.3  No Fee for Services  All VFA Services are offered to you free of charge. However, we and you agree to exchange certain promises, as set forth in this Agreement, to do (or refrain from doing) certain activities that we and you are not otherwise legally obligated to do (or refrain from doing). You also agree to limit (or in some cases, give up) certain rights that you have in exchange for our permission to use VFA Services. Therefore, even though you do not pay any money to use our Services, this Agreement is still a binding legal contract based upon the mutual representations, promises, and limitations contained herein.

1.4  Using VFA Services  In principle, there are two ways that you can use VFA Services: (a) browsing the VFA website and (b) using the VFA website to prepare voter materials anonymously. Unless stated otherwise in this Agreement, these Terms of Service apply generally to any and all uses of VFA Services. For example, under Sections 8 and 9, you acknowledge that you have no rights, and claim no rights, to Democrats Abroad’s copyright or intellectual property, and this applies whether or not you are browsing the VFA website, preparing voter materials anonymously using our online tool, etc.

1. Browsing  When you browse our public website, you consent to our collection of personal information as stated in these Terms of Service, the VFA Privacy Policy, and the VFA Cookie Policy as they apply to browsing (See Section 2, below).
   

2. Anonymous Voter Registration (Anonymous use)  When you use our online voter material preparation tool, you consent to these Terms of Service, the VFA Privacy Policy, and the VFA Cookie Policy as they apply to browsing and accessing Anonymous Voter Registration Services.

1.5  Data privacy  While the terms of this Agreement generally apply to all uses of VFA Services, your data privacy is impacted by the way you choose to use our Services. For example, we collect the least amount of your information if you simply browse the VFA website. For detailed information on how we collect, use, and store your data, please see Sections 2-4, 12, and 15 below, the VFA Privacy Policy, and the VFA Cookie Policy.

2. Browsing the VFA Website

2.1  Technical and device information  When you browse the VFA website, you consent to our collection of technical information from your mobile or computer device, for example, your location information, which devices are connected to the Internet, hardware settings, components of your devices, installed software, updates, and plugins to facilitate the use of our Services. We may automatically collect information such as your operating system, Internet Protocol address, your browser type, browser language preferences, and when, how often and how long you interact with our Services. We and/or third party services use cookies and similar technologies. See also our Cookie Policy.

2.2  Browsing Activity and Feedback  We collect information from your web-browsing activity about the way you use our Services. We may also collect information about you from the notifications or messages you post on our website or send us online, as well as what you search for, look at, and engage with. Information obtained from social features, if any, used in connection with our online Services, such as forums and chat functionality, may be stored, copied, or used by Democrats Abroad, the public, or third-party companies. We will collect personal information from the messages and reviews you post on our social forums, if any, and when you contact our helpdesk at help@VoteFromAbroad.org, for example, with a question, problem, or comment. If you contact our customer service team by email or post, we will keep copies of your correspondence with us to deal with your query and to preserve our legal rights, claims, or defenses.

2.3  You agree that the terms of this Section 2 shall apply whenever you access the VFA website, regardless of the category of VFA Services you are using.

3. Using VFA Services

3.1  Starting an anonymous session  You must click the link on the VFA home page.

3.2  Technical and device information  The Services provided by VFA will be available to you, in which case Democrats Abroad will store limited non-personally identifiable information (including but not limited to device identification information and IP address) for the purpose of enabling you to use those Services (See Section 2, above).

3.3  Accurate information  You agree to provide accurate, current and complete information when using the voter material preparation tool.

3.4  Authorization to submit your voter materials by email through VFA  When you grant us permission to do so, we will submit your voter materials to your LEO by email and we will copy you on the email correspondence using the email address you provide to us. You consent to this transfer of your personal information by clicking the “SEND EMAIL” button as the final step of our online voter material preparation tool. Please note that this transfer only applies to voters in states that permit the submission of applicable voter materials by email. If your state does not permit you to submit your voter materials by email, you will need to download and/or print the forms generated using our online tool and send them to your LEO via postal mail, or by fax if permitted. If you have any questions about this process, please contact the VFA Voter Help Desk at help@VoteFromAbroad.org.

3.5  Personally identifiable information  When you use our Services to register to vote or request your ballot, you consent to our collection of information about you necessary for completing your Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) or Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot (FWAB) forms or to compile anonymous demographic statistics. This information includes your full name, gender, status as a citizen of the United States of America, information on whether you are residing overseas temporarily, indefinitely, etc., email address, telephone number, date of birth, residential address abroad, voting address in the United States, personal preferences, and additional information that you choose to provide. We may also ask for your consent to receive communications from VFA in connection with VFA’s Services.

3.6  Data retention and deletion  Any information that you provide through the VFA website will be collected and transferred to a database stored on a secure server maintained by Democrats Abroad in the United States of America. Thus, if you are located outside of the United States, please be aware that any information you provide to us will be transferred to and stored in the United States; by using our website and giving us your information, you consent to such transfer. When you provide information using the VFA voter material preparation tool, your information will automatically be deleted ninety (90) days after the date of the next federal United States general election. We delete this information in order to protect the privacy of users. However, we do retain that information for the above-stated period for the purposes of (1) responding to any customer service inquiries; (2) determining whether the bridge between our Licensor’s database and the Democrats Abroad database is functioning properly; (3) fixing or responding to database or user-submission errors; (4) generating anonymized, aggregated statistical reports; (5) preserving our legal rights, claims, and defenses; and (6) preserving records of use and voter material submissions in order to respond to inquiries from election authorities, election challenges, etc.

3.7  Sensitive personal information  Some states require voters to provide sensitive personal information when registering to vote or requesting an absentee ballot. Sensitive personal information includes information such as driver’s license numbers, Social Security Numbers or the last four digits thereof, political party affiliation information, an electronic image of your signature, etc. Even if you provide this information while using our services, we do not store this information and have no access to this information through our VFA database. For privacy and security purposes, unique web links provided to download completed forms expire shortly after they are created, and, except for our copy of the email you authorize to be sent to your LEO through the VFA website, neither the links nor any other copy of your completed forms are stored or otherwise retained by Democrats Abroad.

3.8  Use of information  The information you give us during your anonymous session may be used by Democrats Abroad in connection with your use of our Services. In particular, we will send electronic messages to confirm the submission of your voter materials or to remind you to submit your voter materials to your LEO, and we may also send electronic messages about associated Services, to the email address you provide us. Your information will be held in accordance with the VFA Privacy Policy (see Privacy Policy Sections 3 and 4 for more details on use and retention).

3.9  Third party and social media platforms  Please note that we do not control the information that is sent from your browser to third parties, including social media platforms, analytics companies, and advertising networks which receive information in the normal course of your online activities.

3.10  Joining Democrats Abroad Using the “Opt-in” Feature  The VFA website has a feature called the “opt-in,” and we want to be very clear about what that means. The “opt-in” is an option you can select while using VFA’s voter material preparation tool. The option appears during the process of completing your voter materials and it allows you to join Democrats Abroad or update and verify your existing membership. You will be asked, “Would you like to join Democrats Abroad?” You may respond “Yes,” “No,” or “Already a member.” It is important that you understand you are under no obligation whatsoever to select this option in order to use VFA’s Services, and doing so in no way impacts the Services you are offered when using VFA. However, if you select “Yes” (to join Democrats Abroad), you are granting your affirmative consent to join Democrats Abroad, in which case you are also consenting to permit the VFA database, which is owned and operated by Democrats Abroad, to transfer your personal data and preferences to the Democrats Abroad membership database. For more information on the “opt-in,” see the VFA Privacy Policy, Section 5.

4. Use of Services by Children

4.1   Local laws in your respective jurisdiction may require that you are of a certain age in order to agree to the terms of this Agreement. For example, individuals residing in Washington DC, and most jurisdictions within the United States, must be at least 18 years old to enter into certain legally binding arrangements.

4.2  In the event that you are under the required age, you may not continue to use the Services, unless your parent or legal guardian has reviewed and agreed to these terms. Local laws may also require that children under a certain age are supervised during their use of the Services and/or before any personal data is collected by the VFA website. By using the Services, you warrant that you are old enough to use the Services without supervision. If you are under the required age, your parent or legal guardian warrants that they are supervising and monitoring your use of the Services at all times, including to ensure that you do not upload or share any personal information without first obtaining their consent.

4.3  In principle, United States citizens eligible to vote must be 18 years of age or older. This means that most people who use the VFA website to register to vote are18 years old or older.  However, any United States citizen may register to vote if he or she will be 18 or older on the date of the next federal election. Because federal elections occur every two years, it is possible for a 16-year-old to complete and submit voter registration forms to their local election official (LEO); thus, it is possible that we may collect information on individuals who are 16 years old. Because voter registration laws vary from state to state, we encourage all eligible voters to submit their voter registration and/or ballot request applications as soon as possible in January of each calendar year.

4.4  Protecting the privacy of young children is especially important to Democrats Abroad. For that reason, we do not knowingly collect or maintain personal information or non-personally identifiable information from users under 16 years of age, other than as permitted by law in support of our internal operations. If we learn that personal information of users under the age of 16 has been collected, Democrats Abroad will take reasonable steps to remove such information. If you believe that we may have unintentionally collected personal information about your child who is under 16 years of age, you may contact us using the details provided below.

5. Your Conduct When Using VFA Services

5.1  When using the Services (including but not limited to your communicating with the Help Desk), you must behave decently, respectfully and with consideration for Democrats Abroad. This includes your use of any sharing or communication features available with the Services that allows you to share messages, comments, and other information.

5.2  You agree not to do any of the following prohibited acts:

1. Post, upload, publish, submit, or transmit any materials which you and/or other users may create as part of the Services (referred to as “User Content”) that: (i) infringes, misappropriates, or violates a third party’s patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, moral rights, or other intellectual property rights, or rights of publicity or privacy; (ii) violates, or encourages any conduct that would violate, any applicable law or regulation or would give rise to civil liability; (iii) is fraudulent, false, misleading, or deceptive; (iv) is defamatory, obscene, pornographic, vulgar, or offensive; (v) promotes discrimination, bigotry, racism, hatred, harassment, or harm against any individual or group; (vi) is violent or threatening, or promotes violence or actions that are threatening, to any person or entity; or (vii) promotes illegal or harmful activities or substances.
   

2. Use, display, mirror, or frame any of the Services, or any individual element within the Services, Democrats Abroad’s name, any Democrats Abroad or VFA trademark, logo, or other proprietary information, or the layout and design of the Services, without Democrats Abroad’s express written consent;
   

3. Access, tamper with, or use non-public areas of the Services, Democrats Abroad’s computer systems, or the technical delivery systems of Democrats Abroad’s providers;
   

4. Attempt to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of any Democrats Abroad or VFA system or network or breach any security or authentication measures;
   

5. Avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, impair, descramble, or otherwise circumvent any technological measure implemented by Democrats Abroad or any of Democrats Abroad’s providers or any other third party (including another User) to protect the Services;
   

6. Attempt to access or search any Services or download content from the Services through the use of any engine, software, tool, agent, device, or mechanism (including spiders, robots, crawlers, data mining tools, or the like) other than the software and/or search agents provided by Democrats Abroad or other generally available third-party web browsers;
   

7. Send any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, email, junk mail, spam, chain letters, or other form of solicitation;
   

8. Use any meta tags or other hidden text or metadata utilizing a Democrats Abroad or VFA trade name, trademark, logo URL, or product name without Democrats Abroad’s express written consent;
   

9. Use the Services or related features of the services for any commercial purpose or the benefit of any third party or in any manner not permitted by this Agreement;
   

10. Forge any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any email or newsgroup posting, or in any way use the Services or its related features and/or services to send altered, deceptive or false source-identifying information;
    

11. Interfere with, or attempt to interfere with, the access of any user, host or network, including, without limitation, sending a virus, overloading, flooding, spamming, or mail-bombing the Services;
    

12. Collect or store any personally identifiable information from the Services or related features and services from other users without their express permission;
    

13. Impersonate or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity;
    

14. Violate any applicable law or regulation; or
    

15. Encourage or enable any other individual to do any of the foregoing.

5.3  In addition to the general prohibitions listed above, your use of the Services is governed by specific rules (together, “Rules”) maintained and enforced exclusively by Democrats Abroad. Your agreement to follow these Rules is a material condition of the Agreement. Your cooperation in understanding and complying with the Rules is essential to ensure that all users can use and enjoy their experience with the Services. According to the Rules, you must:

(a) Respect the rights of other users to use and enjoy the Services. To this end:

(i) Do not share anything that is defamatory or offensive (including anything racially, ethnically, religiously, or sexually offensive);

(ii) Do not use or promote hate speech, violent behavior, or illegal substances;

(iii) Do not act in a disruptive, threatening, or bullying manner or impersonate or stalk anyone;

(iv) Do not exploit any bugs in the Services to obtain an unfair advantage;

(v) Do not share, trade, phish for, or harvest account sign-in details;

(vi) Do not use or associate your Voter Account for any commercial activity;

(vii) Do not act in any manner that infringes privacy or intellectual property rights;

(viii) Do not carry out, or attempt or threaten to carry out, any activity that is against this Agreement, or any applicable law;

1. Not spam, flood, or make duplicate posts, post commercial solicitations or ads when engaging in any interaction with other users or any Democrats Abroad employees or agents, including customer service representatives, or otherwise disrupt the normal flow of dialogue;
   

2. Not impersonate any employee or agent including customer service representatives, of Democrats Abroad, its agents or its affiliates;
   

3. Not post or communicate any user’s “real world” information (name, address, account name, etc.) through the Services or any other related public spaces (e.g., forums, websites, etc.);
   

4. Not offer or perform services for cash or any other valuable consideration;
   

5. Not organize or be a member of any groups within the Services that are based on or espouse any racist, sexist, anti-religious, anti-ethnic, anti-gay, or other discriminatory values;
   

6. Not exploit any errors in design features which have not been documented, and/or “bugs” to gain access to content that is otherwise not available to users, or to obtain any advantage over other users, or any other unintended benefit; or communicate the existence of any such errors or “bugs,” either directly or through public posting, to other users. Errors and bugs should be promptly reported to us at help@VoteFromAbroad.org.
   

7. Not use any third-party program (such as a “bot”) in order to automate functions related to the Services, including registration of a Voter Account or use of VFA’s online voter material preparation tool; and
   

8. Not engage in any other conduct that is disrespectful to other users or contrary to the “spirit” of the Services.

Failure to adhere to the above may result in the temporary or permanent suspension of use of any or all Services.

6. E-mail, Messaging, Blogging and Chat

6.1  Democrats Abroad may make email, messaging, blogging, or chat (collectively, “Communication Software”) available through its Services, either directly or through a third-party provider. Democrats Abroad is not responsible for communications made by you and other users via the Communication Software. You acknowledge and agree that your communications made via the Communication Software are public and not private communications and that you have no expectation of privacy concerning your use of the Communication Software. You acknowledge and agree that personal information that you communicate via the Communication Software may be seen and used by others and may result in widespread distribution of such information. We strongly encourage you not to disclose any personal information in your public communications via the Communication Software unless you wish such information to be made permanently available to the public.

7. Maintenance of Services

7.1   We may take down any features of the Services at any time for any duration and for any reason, including for investigation of any security incident and for carrying out system maintenance and upgrades.

8. Intellectual Property Rights

8.1   Subject to your compliance with the terms and conditions of this Agreement, Democrats Abroad hereby grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited, fully revocable right and license to use any intellectual property that enables you to use VFA Services or access information and materials (collectively referred to as “Materials”) that form part of the Services exclusively for your personal and non-commercial use solely in connection with the Services to which you have been granted access.

8.2  Duplication, copying or any form of reproduction of any Materials to any other server or location for the purposes of any other form of reproduction or any form of distribution is expressly and explicitly prohibited. 

8.3  You may not cause or permit the sale or other commercial distribution or commercial exploitation (e.g., by renting, licensing, sublicensing, leasing, disseminating, uploading, downloading, or transmitting) of any Services without the express prior written consent of an authorized representative of Democrats Abroad. 

8.4  All rights not specifically granted under this Agreement are hereby reserved by Democrats Abroad and, as applicable, by its licensors.

9. No Right to Ownership

9.1  The Services are protected by US copyright laws, international copyright treaties and conventions, and other laws. All rights are reserved. The Services may contain certain licensed materials, and Democrats Abroad and Democrats Abroad’s licensors, if any, may protect their rights in the event of any violation of this Agreement. Except as expressly licensed to you herein, all right, title, and interest in and to the Services and any and all associated copyrights, trademarks and intellectual property therein and/or related thereto and all copies thereof (including but not limited to any patches, updates, copies, derivative works, titles, computer code, themes, objects, characters, character names, stories, dialogs, catch phrases, locations, concepts, artwork, images, animation, sounds, musical compositions, audio-visual effects, text, methods of operation, moral rights, “applets” incorporated into the Services and Materials) are owned by Democrats Abroad or Democrats Abroad’s licensors (“Democrats Abroad IP”).

9.2  You acknowledge and agree that you shall have no ownership or other property interest in the Services, and you further acknowledge and agree that all such rights are and shall forever be owned by and inure to the benefit of Democrats Abroad and/or its licensors.

9.3  Democrats Abroad may allow you to create your audio, visual or audio-visual content using our services (“User-Generated Content”). We may enable you to synchronize your User Generated Content with Democrats Abroad IP.

9.4  Democrats Abroad acknowledges and agrees that all right, title and interest in the User-Generated Content (excluding any Democrats Abroad IP) shall belong to you. To the extent required by Democrats Abroad, with respect to the User-Generated Content, you automatically grant to Democrats Abroad an irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, royalty free, sub-licensable right and license under all applicable copyrights and intellectual property rights laws to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, perform, display, distribute and otherwise exploit and/or dispose of the User-Generated Content (or any part thereof) in any way Democrats Abroad sees fit.

9.5  Democrats Abroad hereby grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited, fully revocable right and license to use the Democrats Abroad IP with your User-Generated Content, subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement and any other policies which Democrats Abroad publishes from time to time. The license you have been granted to synchronize the Democrats Abroad IP with your User-Generated Content does not include any rights to (a) resale of the Democrats Abroad IP; (b) the distribution, public performance or public display of any Democrats Abroad IP other than as expressly authorized herein or in any policies published by Democrats Abroad; (c) modifying or otherwise making any derivative uses of the Democrats Abroad IP, or any portion thereof for any other reason. You acknowledge and agree that all right, title and interest in the Democrats Abroad IP in any part of the world and whether or not registered or registrable and to the fullest extent thereof and for the full period thereof and all extensions and renewals thereof, are for the benefit of Democrats Abroad and will remain our property.

9.6  You hereby warrant and represent that any User-Generated Content which you synchronize with Democrats Abroad IP shall not be discriminatory, racist, obscene, libelous, offensive, illegal, defamatory, inappropriate, invasive, or likely to adversely affect the reputation or goodwill of Democrats Abroad.

9.7  You hereby warrant and represent that any User-Generated Content synchronized with Democrats Abroad IP, and the subsequent use and exploitation of any those materials by you and/or Democrats Abroad, will not infringe any rights of any person (corporate or otherwise) or otherwise result in any potential liability to Democrats Abroad and shall not be used for commercial exploitation by you unless expressly authorized by Democrats Abroad.

10. No Sale or Assignment

10.1  Democrats Abroad does not permit or recognize any transfer of VFA Services. Therefore, you may not give, purchase, sell, bargain, barter, market, trade, offer for sale, sell, license, assign or otherwise divest your rights, responsibilities or obligations under this Agreement, either in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of Democrats Abroad. Any attempt to do so shall be void and of no effect.

11. Indemnification

11.1   Upon request by Democrats Abroad, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold Democrats Abroad, its officers, employees, agents, affiliates, etc., harmless from and against all liabilities, claims, damages, losses, costs and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees, experts’ fees, computer forensics expenses, and other electronic discovery expenses) or other losses arising out of or in any way related to (a) your use of, or activities in connection with the Services; (b) any breach or alleged breach of this Agreement by you; or (c) any allegation that any content that you make available via the Services infringes or otherwise violates the copyright, trademark, trade secret, privacy or other intellectual property or other rights of any third party. Democrats Abroad reserves the right, at its own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, in which event you will cooperate with Democrats Abroad in asserting any available defenses.

12. International Use

12.1  Although the Services may be accessible worldwide, we make no representation that the Services are appropriate or available for use where you are located and accessing them from territories where the content is illegal is prohibited. Those who choose to access the Services do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws, if and to the extent local laws are applicable. Any offer and/or information made in connection with the Services is void where prohibited.

13. Termination and Survivability of Terms

13.1  Termination by You  The Agreement set forth herein continues to remain in full force and effect until such time as terminated by either party. You retain full discretion to discontinue use of the Services (or any feature of the Services) at any time, pursuant to the terms of this Agreement.

13.2  Termination by Us  Without prejudice to any other rights of Democrats Abroad, this Agreement shall terminate automatically if you fail to comply with its terms and conditions, including but not limited to the following:

(a) you breach any provision of the Agreement (or act in a manner that clearly shows you do not intend to, or are unable to, comply with this Agreement);

(b) you fail to make the timely payment of fees, if any, for the Services;

(c) you materially breach any provision of the Agreement, and (i) the breach cannot be corrected; or (ii) we notify you of the breach and you fail to correct it within 14 days of the notice;

(d) you physically, verbally, or through other means abuse, threaten, bully, or harass us or our personnel (in such circumstances, we may alternatively suspend or restrict your access to the Services);

(e) you have repeatedly made complaints in bad faith or without a reasonable basis, and continue to do so after we have asked you to stop (in such circumstances, we may alternatively suspend or restrict your access to the Services);

(f) we are required to do so by law (for example, where the provision of the Services to you is, or becomes, unlawful);

(g) we elect to discontinue the Services, in whole or in part (such as if it becomes impractical for us to continue offering Services in your region due to change of law).

13.3  Survivability  The provisions of Sections 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16 and 17 shall survive any termination of this Agreement.

14. Injunction

14.1  Because Democrats Abroad would be irreparably damaged if the terms of this Agreement were not specifically enforced, you agree that Democrats Abroad shall be entitled, without bond or other security or proof of damages, to take such action as may be required, including seeking an injunction and other equitable remedies, in addition to any other remedies available to it under the applicable law.

15. Data Protection

15.1  You acknowledge that Democrats Abroad does and may collect data derived from your use of any of the Services. For example, Democrats Abroad may collect or process information about your device, including, where available, your IP address and/or operating system. This is statistical data about our users’ browsing, actions, patterns, and devices and does not identify any individual (unless otherwise deemed as personal data or personally identifiable information pursuant to applicable law or regulation). Your IP address is used to determine and auto-select your country. The collection and storage of the above data is solely for the purposes of facilitating the existing functionality of the Services, assisting Democrats Abroad in assessing improvements to its Services and for digital management purposes.

15.2  When you use the Services, Democrats Abroad, other users, and third parties may collect, use, and share with others information that relates to you.

15.3  The collection, use and sharing of personal information that relates to you is explained in the VFA Privacy Policy. The policy and updates to the policy may also be notified to you while using VFA’s Services. By using these services, you agree to the collection, use, and sharing of your personal information as explained in that policy and agree to any revisions which are notified to you or posted on our website.

Questions, comments and requests regarding the data we collect are welcomed and should be addressed to Democrats Abroad, PO Box 15130, Washington DC, 20003, USA or help@VoteFromAbroad.org.

16. Limits on Our Liability and Your Rights

16.1  To the fullest extent permissible under applicable law, you expressly agree that the use of the Services is at your sole risk and that the entire risk as to satisfactory quality, performance, accuracy, and effort is with you. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, all Services are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis with all faults and without warranty of any kind, and Democrats Abroad hereby disclaims all warranties and conditions with respect to the services, either express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, of satisfactory quality, of fitness for a particular purpose or accuracy, of quiet enjoyment, and non-infringement of third party rights. Without limiting the foregoing, we make no warranty that (a) the Services will meet your requirements; (b) the Services will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free; (c) the Services will be interoperable or compatible with your device and software; (d) your voter materials will be received or accepted by your LEO (it is your responsibility to follow up directly with your LEO to confirm your voter materials have been received and processed properly); or (e) the results that may be obtained from the use of the Services will be effective, accurate or reliable. No oral or written information or advice given by Democrats Abroad or its authorized representative(s) shall create a warranty.

16.2  At some point in the future, certain features of the Services may go out of date, and Democrats Abroad makes no commitment to update or continue operating such aspects of the Services. The disclaimers of liability contained in this section apply to any damages or injury caused by any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, computer virus, communication line failure, theft, or destruction, or unauthorized access to, alteration of, or use of the Services, whether for breach of contract, tortious behavior, negligence, or under any other cause of action. The use of the Services or the downloading or other acquisition of any materials and user content through or in connection with the Services is done at your own discretion and risk and with your agreement that you will be solely responsible for any damage to your device or loss of data that results from such activities.

16.3  Democrats Abroad makes no representations about the suitability of the information contained in the Services. The information and related graphics published as part of the Services may include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. You understand and agree that temporary interruption of the Services may occur as normal events. You further understand and agree that we have no control over third party networks you may access in the course of the use of the Services, and therefore, delays and disruption of other network transmissions are completely beyond Democrats Abroad’s control.

16.4  You acknowledge and agree that your exclusive remedy for any dispute with Democrats Abroad is to stop using the Services. In no case shall any liability of Democrats Abroad to you exceed the amount that you paid to Democrats Abroad or its affiliates and/or designees for the applicable feature of the Services giving rise to any such liability. In no event shall Democrats Abroad or its affiliates be liable to you or any third party for any special, punitive, incidental, indirect or consequential damages of any kind, or any damages whatsoever, including, without limitation, those resulting from loss of use, data or profits, whether or not we have been advised of the possibility of such damages, and on any theory of liability, arising out of or in connection with the use of the Services, including damages to property, loss of goodwill, device failure or malfunction, and, to the extent permitted by law, damages for personal injuries, even if Democrats Abroad has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

16.5  No Class Actions  You may only resolve disputes with us on an individual basis, and you may not bring a claim as a plaintiff or a class member in a class, consolidated, or representative action. 

16.6  Because some states or jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or the limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, in such states or jurisdictions, the liability of Democrats Abroad and its affiliates shall be limited to the fullest extent permitted by law.

17. Miscellaneous

17.1  Integration Clause  This Agreement represents the complete agreement between you and Democrats Abroad concerning the Services and supersedes all prior agreements and representations, warranties or understandings between you and Democrats Abroad (whether negligently or innocently made but excluding those made fraudulently), regarding the same subject matter.

17.2  Severability and Waiver  This Agreement shall operate to the fullest extent permissible by law. If any part of the Agreement is determined to be unlawful, void, or unenforceable pursuant to applicable law including but not limited to the warranty disclaimers and liability limitations set forth above, then the invalid or unenforceable provision will be deemed severable from this Agreement and will not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions. Any failure by us to enforce or exercise any provision of the Agreement or related rights shall not constitute a waiver of that right or provision.

17.3  Assignment  Democrats Abroad may assign this Agreement, in whole or in part, at any time. Notwithstanding, you may not assign, transfer, or sublicense any or all of your rights or obligations under the Agreement without Democrats Abroad’s express prior written consent.

17.4  Limitations on Our Performance of this Agreement  Our performance of the Agreement is subject to existing laws and legal process, and nothing contained in the Agreement is in derogation of our right to comply with governmental, court, and law enforcement requests or requirements relating to your use of the Services or information provided to or gathered by Democrats Abroad with respect to such use. In addition to any excuse provided by applicable law, we shall be excused from liability for non-delivery or delay in delivery of the Services arising from any event beyond our reasonable control, whether or not foreseeable by either party, including but not limited to, labor disturbance, war, terrorism, fire, denial of service attack, internet outages, accident, adverse weather, governmental act or regulation, and other causes or events beyond our reasonable control, whether or not similar to those which are enumerated above.

17.5  Third Party Beneficiaries  Nothing in this Agreement gives or claims to give to any third party any benefit or right to enforce any term of this Agreement, and, to the extent permitted by law, any provisions of law that establish benefits or rights of third parties are expressly excluded.

17.6  Language of Correspondence  The parties agree that all correspondence relating to this Agreement shall be written in the English language. Democrats Abroad will use reasonable efforts to accept, and reply to, correspondence written in the Spanish language, but we do not undertake any affirmative obligation to pay for or provide professional or certified translations of any correspondence written in the Spanish language.

17.7  Amendment  This Agreement applies to all users of VFA Services, depending on the manner in which each user chooses to interact with the VFA website. Democrats Abroad reserves the right to amend or modify this Agreement at any time, in any manner, without any liability to Democrats Abroad and at Democrats Abroad’s sole discretion, provided that users shall be given reasonable notice of any changes that materially limit or restrict their rights under previous versions of this Agreement. When we amend our Terms of Service, the VFA Privacy Policy, or the VFA Cookie Policy, you consent to receiving “re-permissioning” communications from us. In other words, we may contact you by email to inform you of the amendment and seek your affirmative consent to the amended terms. With respect to any individual user, this Agreement may not be amended or varied except in a writing signed by Democrats Abroad. Although we understand that electronic or digital signatures are increasingly viewed as the equivalent of traditional written signatures, for these purposes a signature or “signed” writing or written agreement shall not include an electronic or digital signature.

17.8  Choice of Law and Forum  This Agreement is governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the District of Columbia, United States of America, without giving effect to principles of conflict of laws. In the event of a claim by Democrats Abroad against you, you agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the courts located in the District of Columbia, United States of America. In the event of a claim by you against Democrats Abroad, its officers, employees, volunteers, affiliates or licensors, you agree to file your claim in, and we agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of, the courts located in the District of Columbia, United States of America.

You may contact us at the following address:

Democrats Abroad

PO Box 15130

Washington DC, 20003

USA

Email: help@VoteFromAbroad.org