ATLANTA | Volunteers were out and about Friday trying to find any remaining ballots that could help Democrat Stacey Abrams close the gap against Republican Brian Kemp in their unsettled, still too-close-to-call race for Georgia governor.
Unofficial returns show Kemp clinging to an advantage, and he’s already resigned as secretary of state to start a transition with the blessing of the outgoing GOP governor, Nathan Deal. President Donald Trump chimed in with a tweet that said Kemp “ran a great race in Georgia – he won. It is time to move on!”
Yet Abrams, who is hoping to become the nation’s first black female governor, sent out volunteers and campaign staff in search of votes that she hopes could still tilt the margin in her favor.
In a hectic effort to make sure every possible vote is counted, dozens of volunteers converged on a warehouse-turned-phone bank near downtown. Their goal was to reach voters who used a provisional ballot to make sure they take steps to ensure their vote — for Abrams or Kemp — is counted by Friday evening.
Helen Brosnan of the National Domestic Workers Alliance stood on a chair and shouted, “How many calls do you think we can make? Can we make hundreds of calls? Let’s do this!”
Abrams’ lawyers also are considering options to ensure all votes are counted. Her campaign leaders say they feel she needs to pick up about 25,000 votes to force a runoff.
At least 2,000 people across the U.S. are involved in that effort, said state Sen. Nikema Williams, the Georgia director for Care In Action, which advocates for more than 2 million domestic workers and care workers nationwide.
“We’re in the cradle of the Civil Rights movement, the home of Congressman John Lewis who literally bled on the bridge at Selma to make sure that everybody had the right to vote,” she said.
Marisa Franco, 27, saw a friend’s Facebook post about the effort, then showed up at the warehouse to volunteer Friday morning. “I think that it’s really central to democracy that everybody who is eligible to vote can vote and has the least amount of barriers possible, so I’m just here to make sure that every vote counts,” she said.
