It’s Down To The Wire In Georgia’s Senate Runoff Races

In the waning hours of the Georgia Senate runoff elections, voting rights activists rallied for a final push to propel Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to victory tomorrow and effectively claim the U.S. Senate for the Democrats.

President-Elect Joe Biden campaigned in Georgia for Warnock and Ossoff. And President Trump also flew to the state where he supported the two Republicans incumbents, Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.

Much of what Trump said was overshadowed by a new controversy he created during a phone conversation with Georgia’s Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, during which Trump asked him to “find 11,780” votes. Historians, prosecutors, and critics describe the call as an effort to coerce Raffensperger to commit election fraud, by ignoring the final vote count in the battleground state which Biden won.

“It’s astonishing, but it’s not surprising,” said attorney and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate, Stacey Abrams.

Abrams joined Oprah Winfrey for the media mogul’s latest ‘Own Your Vote’ webinar which started last year to mobilize African American voters.

According to Abrams, 112,000 Georgians who did not vote in November have already participated in the runoff elections, and 40% of them are African American.

“You’re seeing those voters who believe they have the right to be heard, some for the first time,” Abrams added.

Voting Rights Warriors

Abrams has been credited with turning Georgia blue in November’s election through her robust voter registration and activist work. Her organization, Fair Fight, sued the state after her close and contested loss to Republican Governor Brian Kemp in 2018. But instead of giving up on politics, Abrams said she joined with other voting rights groups that have “been on the ground doing this work for years.”

The late Georgia Congressman John Lewis called it “good trouble,” advocating for the right to vote even when it involved challenging the status quo as he and hundreds of others did on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday in 1965. A law enforcement officer cracked the young college student’s skull but did not dampen his commitment to justice.

Voters in Georgia’s 5th Congressional elected Nikema Williams to fill the seat vacated by Lewis when he died in July. Williams was sworn in Sunday, a member of the 117th Congress.

“And now I’m here to pick up the charge and continue the work … if we accept the will of the people and accept the November results,” Williams told Winfrey in an acknowledgment of a plan by Republicans in the House of Representatives to attempt to overturn Biden’s victory by rejecting the Electoral College votes when Congress meets Wednesday to count them.

The prolonged attempt by Trump and his allies to subvert the will of the American people has exhausted much of the nation. In Georgia Trump’s baseless claims of election tampering resulted in three recounts. But Helen Butler of the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda explained that voters are “no ways tired.”

Butler said, “I do believe that people understand that their vote really, really matters. COVID has shown them that they have to have the right people to make public policy and people who will stand up and fight for them.”

During early voting for the presidential election, there were eight-hour lines at some polling places. And barriers are expected tomorrow.

Abrams said, “Do not be afraid. We need you to show up. And you need you to show up. Donald Trump has riled people up. We’ve anticipated it.”

A former Georgia legislator, Abrams reminded voters how close the Senate races are.

“We know there is a race in Iowa that was decided by six votes. I need you to be among the six.”

If you have a problem voting tomorrow, January 5, in the Georgia Senate runoff election, visit peachvote.com or call 1-866-ourvote.