Metro Atlanta Pastors Say Churches Play a Key Role in Georgia Elections

Voters in Georgia's 13th Congressional District will go to the polls on July 28 to pick someone to fill the seat left open by the late U.S. Rep. David Scott. The district covers parts of six counties near Atlanta, including Gwinnett, DeKalb, and Clayton. To help more people vote, some local churches are running programs to register voters and give them rides to polling places on Election Day.

Two well-known pastors in the Atlanta area say their churches have always pushed members to take part in their communities. Pastor Jamal Bryant leads New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, and the Rev. E. Dewey Smith leads House of Hope in Decatur. Both men say encouraging people to vote is a key part of what their churches stand for.

Rev. Smith's church runs a program called 'Souls to the Polls,' which gives rides to voters who need help getting to their polling place. Smith pointed out that his church has a long history of civil rights work. 'In 1960, Dr. Martin Luther King Sr. was the senior pastor of this church and was a pioneer in helping secure the right to vote,' Smith said. 'We've continued that legacy through voter registration drives and Souls to the Polls.'

Pastor Bryant said New Birth holds voter registration drives all year long, and he believes churches have a duty to help people understand the issues that affect their lives. 'The church has always been not just the soul of the community, but the conscience,' Bryant said. He added that it is very important for churches to help members learn about the issues that impact them.

Six candidates qualified to run in this special election — four Democrats, including Marcye Scott, daughter of the late Rep. David Scott, and two Republicans. Andra Gillespie, a political science professor at Emory University, said special elections usually bring out fewer voters than regular elections. She also said that with so many candidates in the race, it is very likely no single candidate will win more than half of all the votes, which would force a runoff.

If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote on July 28, the top two vote-getters will move on to a runoff election on August 25. Prof. Gillespie said the result matters beyond Georgia because Republicans hold only a slim majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. 'The shift in representation between the Democrats and the Republicans, from one seat to the next, could be the difference between legislation being able to pass or not,' she said, meaning this one race could affect laws across the entire country.