With control of the U.S. Senate in the balance in two Georgia runoff elections on Jan. 5, Democrats have a new not-so-secret weapon: 75,000 newly registered voters who were added to the voter rolls since the Nov. 3 general election.
According to the Georgia secretary of state's office, these voters—who have no prior record of voting in the state—are overwhelmingly young, and a majority are people of color. Fifty-seven percent are under the age of 35, and many have just turned 18.
In a state with 5 million voters, 75,000 might not sound significant at first. However, Joe Biden only won the state in November by 12,000 votes. Also, in one of the two U.S. Senate races, Democrat Jon Ossoff finished only 88,000 votes behind Republican David Perdue. As such, mobilizing these new voters will be key to closing the gap and winning on Jan. 5.
One potential problem is that not many of the 75,000 new registered voters have cast a ballot yet. As the secretary of state's office reports, less than 2,000 of them have voted so far through in-person early voting and absentee voting. (Although overall early voting and absentee ballot request numbers are very encouraging.)
The task is on us to get these new voters (and millions of other Democratic voters in Georgia) to turn out for the Jan. 5 runoff. To this end, more than 23,000 Daily Kos community members have volunteered to get out the vote or the runoff—from writing over 400,000 letters with Vote Forward to making remote phone calls with our partner organizations: Fair Fight, NextGen America, Turnout2020, Jon Ossoff, Raphael Warnock, 2020 Victory, and more.
Daily Kos has set up a one-stop shop of get-out-the-vote events through Mobilize America. Wherever you live, you can volunteer with our partner organizations to get out the vote from the safety and comfort of your home. Click here to find an event that works for you, and volunteer today.
If you can't volunteer right now, that's okay—please support the incredible work of community groups on the ground in Georgia like Fair Fight and New Georgia Action Project. Please donate $1 to each of these 15 organizations that we’ve put together on a single Act Blue page so they have the resources to get out the vote.