How To Help With Georgia’s Extremely Important Senate Runoff Elections

Both Senate races in Georgia have runoff elections coming up on January 5th. In addition to wanting to make sure Georgians are represented by Senators who genuinely care about them and their lives, these races couldn’t be more important on a national scale.

If Democrats win both seats, the Senate will be split 50-50, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris acting as the deciding vote in any ties. If they lose either seat, we’ll be stuck with Mitch McConnell and a majority Republican Senate, who will likely make it their mission to stonewall Joe Biden and other Democratic lawmakers’ attempts to push through any sort of progressive agenda at all.

We may be feeling good and relaxed after Biden’s win (and from seeing Donald Trump continue to lose in the courts), but this fight isn’t over. We need all hands on deck to make sure the two Democratic candidates—Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock—win their races.

Here are some things we can all be doing to help.

First of all, if you live in Georgia, election day is January 5th, 2021 but early in-person voting begins December 14th. (And ends January 1st.) Even if you voted in November, take ten seconds and double-check your registration and your polling place here.

You can also request an absentee ballot here any time before January 1st, but make sure you return it with plenty of time to spare. You can track your ballot here.

If you’re not already registered to vote, good news! You can do that here. The deadline to register to vote before the January election is soon, though–December 7th.

Also, if you’re 17 years old and will be turning 18 in the next month, you can vote! Even if you weren’t old enough to vote in November, you can in January as long as you turn 18 by the 5th! Register here!

Both campaigns also have a need for on-the-ground volunteering opportunities, from in-person canvassing to registering voters to phone banking to social media amplification. Check out Ossoff’s campaign options here and Rev. Warnock’s here.

For those of us outside of Georgia, you can help out with phone banking or donating by clicking those same links to the campaigns.

The organization Vote Forward is following up their wildly successful letter-writing campaign from the general election and mailing 3 million letters to Georgia voters.

Stacey Abrams’ organization Fair Fight is continuing to do the important work of registering and mobilizing voters. You can donate to their work and volunteer to help.

Also, this is happening tomorrow, Thursday 12/3! Tickets start at only $5.

Are there any other ways you’re planning to help out in these races? Let us know in the comments!

(image: Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)

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Vivian Kane

Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.

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