Voters’ voices: The day Georgia made history
Tuesday’s 2026 midterm election was a historic day for Georgians, who elected the first Black woman to governor in the U.S., the first openly non-binary or trans person to a state House in the Deep South and the first Japanese American to the Georgia state House. Voters gave Democrats control of the Georgia state House for the first time since 2004, the Governor’s Mansion for the first time since 2003 and came within 2,000 votes of a trifecta, narrowly missing control of the state Senate.
Voters did not go to the polls alone. From cookouts and poll monitoring to chaplains and DJs, election protection efforts came in many varieties on Election Day in Metro Atlanta.
Black Male Initiative organized an election day cookout at Adams Park Library to support the community of District 10 in Southwest Atlanta as they exercise their right to vote.
“This is my community. I’m from this area, and I just really want to just thank the people for coming out doing what they’re supposed to do anyway. No pressure those that come they come. I grew up here right on Campbellton Road. Right where we’re standing people sleep everyday and we just need to get together and vote the right people in so that we can help with the money, people sick. There’s a lot of people on crutches who can’t go see the doctor because they don’t have insurance. I just want to see my community do better,” Harris said.
Jaylen Rock (second from left) said, “I’m 18, I came out here because you don’t see people voting in this space so they don’t really know, so you have to come out here and try to engage with the people and try to make it fun to vote. People don’t really look at the news anymore they just watch Netflix. You have to really come out here and show support for the community.”
Right: K.J. 19 “My friend died on January 13th, his father is running Kenn Collier. That’s the main reason I came out to vote. I don’t know about politics I listen to what my grandmas tells me about politics. Because of my friend’s father, I push young people to go vote.”
Right: Sherri B Williams. Election protection volunteer at Adams library in Southwest Atlanta on November 3rd, 2026. Williams assisted voters, making sure they are able to vote without any problems.
“I made it here, I want to vote every year because that’s the only way we’re going to help one another. I’m glad to be here to vote. My motivation for voting is for my neighborhood, social security, and to get Trump out. I live in the senior citizen home and they have the paper saying where to vote,” said Willie Kelly.
Conrad drove an hour and 30 minutes to vote at Calvary Chapel in Alpharetta. They told him that he couldn’t vote in his new district and had to vote in Alpharetta. He still made the trek because he believes it is his civic duty to vote.
Left: Chaplain Bob Birgen. West Hunter Street Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia, Tuesday, November 3 2026.
Right: Christine Schweitzer (Left), and Alyssa Schweitzer (Right), Alpharetta, Georgia, Tuesday, November 3, 2026
Bob Birgen flew all the way from California to Georgia to help with election day.
“The back story is, I’ve been associated with a magazine/christian social justice community. Some of those groups organized faiths united to save democracy. Basically it was just getting chaplains and volunteers to serve as witnesses at polls, because of the threats that had been made to the voting process,” Birgen Said
Christine and Alyssa Schweitzer are mother and daughter pair who drove an hour away to make it to the correct polling location.
“I went to school at Georgia Tech and I drove back here to Alpharetta because I’m registered to vote here. Its really important that I come out today because sometimes the local elections, they impact people more than the federal. It’s really important. As their mother, I’m really proud of my children exercising their right to vote,” said Christine said.
Right: Michelle Barclay. West Hunter Street Baptist Church, Atlanta, GA November 3rd, 2026
Julian Gordon said, “I studied environmental justice while in school at the illustrious North Carolina Agriculture and Technical State University. I went to school for atmospheric science and meteorology. So there were a lot of injustices that I saw while studying hurricane research. So that’s the big reason why I vote. I know that its important for our community and there is a lot of injustices throughout our entire existence. I know that this is a way for our voices to be heard and actually create change.”
Michelle Barclay worked as an election observer this year. She said, “I retired as a lawyer about a year ago, and there was a call out from the American Bar association for lawyers to step up and volunteer to be poll workers, poll observers, and I didn’t get my act together to get ready for the poll worker, there was a lot more training, but I got the time to become a poll observer with ACLU and that’s why I’m here today. I stand here for a shift of about 6 hours and making sure people aren’t turned away to vote and if they are we don’t do anything to intervene we just record it, and I call ACLU and if its something they want to do they can do it. I’m happy to report that nothing has happened here.”
“We think about our democracy. What the democrats are doing, we appreciate Ms. Bottoms and what shes doing, and I think we’ll move forward with our life and our democracy our beliefs with this vote. Thats what brought me and my wife out.”
“Voting is your right. We have to exercise our right to vote.”
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