Not since the election of the nation’s first Black President in 2008, have we seen this much participation by Blacks in Georgia.
Today was the final day for early in-person voting, which began on October 12.
According to voting statistics provided by the Georgia Secretary of State, some 3.8 million ballots have already been cast in Georgia for the election on November 3. Early in-person ballots make up more than 2.6 million. Absentee ballots are at almost 1.2 million. Overall, it’s a 63% increase in the number of ballots cast at this point in the 2016 election.
Rev. James Woodall, Georgia NAACP State President attributes the turnout to the candidacy of Rev. Raphael Warnock, who is seeking a seat in the U.S. Senate. Warnock is the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, which was the home church of the late Civil Rights Leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
According to Woodall, “We’re excited to see Black voters come out in droves to actually vote for a reason, not just vote against something.”
Another reason for the enthusiasm says Nse Ufot, Executive Director of the New Georgia Project, is the investment that has gone into minority communities. “A whole bunch of people have moved to Georgia and a whole bunch of people realize that this ain’t it, that we need to do things differently.”
NGP has spent the time since its creation in 2013 registering more than a half million voters according to Ufot.
She says “We have literally broken and smashed every voting record that we can think of since the June 9th Primary, despite the fact that we are in a pandemic, and despite the fact that we were in the middle of racial justice protests."
At this point in 2016 Ufot says that only 199,000 Georgians under the age of 40 had voted, now we’re at 599,000 Georgians who have not only registered to vote but have shown up and voted already in the 2020 election.” She says records are being broken every day.
Ufot calls that “a beautiful thing to see.”
NGP is providing rides to the polls
New Georgia Project is providing rides to the polls in Atlanta, Augusta, Albany, Savannah, and Macon. Ufot says the number for a ride is 1-800-874-1541.