The 2022 midterms are not over. Since no candidate broke the 50 percent-plus-one-vote threshold, Georgia’s U.S. Senate race is going to a Dec. 6 runoff. It’s a must-win seat that would bring a crucial 51st Democrat to the Senate, and once the runoff was imminent, Democrats mobilized to once again get out the vote to reelect Raphael Warnock—including within the Daily Kos community.
In the past week alone, nearly 5,000 community volunteers have already answered the call by writing letters with Vote Forward, the most popular get-out-the-vote activity in Daily Kos history.
But we’re not done yet.
Visit Vote Forward to write handwritten letters to Democratic-leaning voters in Georgia—urging them to go vote in the December runoff.
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Vote Forward makes the job simple for you to help boost Democratic turnout. Volunteers agree to "adopt" a number of voters, and then print out letters and address labels for casual voters, all from a home computer.
Then it’s time to personalize the letters with handwritten notes, to remind these voters why coming out for the Dec. 6 runoff is so important. Then, on Nov. 29, letters are dropped in the mail—timed for maximum possible effect.
Daily Kos volunteers have participated in Vote Forward since 2018, when we were responsible for the program sending 1 million letters in the mail. This November, Vote Forward volunteers sent 5 million letters to casual Democratic voters across the country, and it boosted turnout in key races that allowed us to push back against the "red wave." Now that we have a December runoff in Georgia, let’s finish the job.
Can't write letters for the Georgia runoff? Chip in $5 to help Daily Kos recruit more volunteers to get out the Democratic vote.
Though the Rev. Sen. Raphael Warnock finished a few votes shy of the simple majority to avoid a runoff, he still got over 36,000 more votes than his Republican opponent, Herschel Walker. The challenge will be to get the nearly 1.94 million Georgians who voted for Warnock to come out again during the busy time between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Given the history of Georgia elections, it’s no surprise that Georgia Republicans’ recent changes to the runoff process were designed to suppress the vote.
After Democrats’ stunning victories in Georgia two years ago—Joe Biden’s extraordinary win in November, followed by the Senate-shaking triumphs of Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in January—Peach State Republicans reacted with a furor. State lawmakers passed an enormous package of voting restrictions, all designed to make sure they wouldn’t experience such humiliation again.
A number of provisions in that bill were pilloried nationally, like limits on the number of ballot drop boxes, reductions to early voting availability, and a prohibition on giving food or water to voters waiting in line at polling places. One change, however, received less attention at the time, though it looms large now: Republicans also deliberately curtailed the length of election runoffs, shrinking them from nine weeks to just four.
Democrats, we need to show that despite these unfair laws, the people still want Sen. Warnock.
Vote Forward has an ambitious goal to send one million letters to Georgia voters for the December runoff. It’s crucial to sign up and volunteer today if you want to participate!
Looking for other ways to help get out the Democratic vote in Georgia? Check out Daily Kos’ GOTV Page (which is regularly updated), or learn more about groups doing phonebanks and textbanks. It’s time for all hands on deck here, so let’s make it happen!
