Jon Ossoff and Keisha Lance Bottoms stood before the congregation at Dream Center Church of Atlanta and told worshippers plainly to vote early and in person, with just days left before Georgia's early-voting window slams shut. The pair wasn't alone at the pulpit — Penny Brown Reynolds, a judge running for secretary of state, also urged the congregation to cast their ballots before time runs out.
Ossoff, the incumbent U.S. senator, and Bottoms, the former Atlanta mayor now running for governor, framed the visit as part of a broader get-out-the-vote push with early in-person voting ending Friday, October 30, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. Election Day itself lands Nov. 3, giving Georgians a narrow runway to cast ballots before polls open statewide. Reynolds, meanwhile, took her own turn at the pulpit to call on worshippers to vote, the station reported.
Souls to the Polls Drives Worshippers Straight to Ballots
The church's push was part of its annual Souls to the Polls event, a tradition where dReam Center Church of Atlanta hosts a service aimed squarely at mobilizing voters, according to Atlanta News First. After the service wrapped, the church didn't just send people off with encouragement — it physically transported voters to cast their ballots, the outlet reported.
Ossoff didn't mince words about what he sees as the stakes of the race. “When somebody puts up $100 million against your name, against your family's name,” he said, invoking the sum as evidence of the forces arrayed against him, per FOX 5 Atlanta's reporting from the service. He also told the crowd the moment had arrived to pick up their power and rebuke what he called an obscenity, the station reported.
A Senate Rematch and a Governor's Race Still Too Close to Call
Ossoff is a Democrat running for his second term in the Senate, and polling averages currently have him in the lead in that race, according to the Georgia Recorder. The governor's race looks far tighter: a recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll cited by the Georgia Recorder put Rick Jackson at 46% and Bottoms, the Democratic nominee, at 45%, within a 3.1% margin of error — a dead heat by any reasonable read.
That tightness helps explain why Democrats are leaning on church visits and star power alike. Ossoff and Bottoms were set to join former President Barack Obama at an Atlanta rally Wednesday, the Georgia Recorder reported, while former Vice President Kamala Harris was expected to appear in Georgia on Friday. FOX 5 Atlanta separately reported that Obama and Harris were scheduled to campaign in Atlanta on Wednesday, with Harris expected to remain in the state through Friday and speak at a Democratic Party gala that evening.
Early Voting Numbers Climb, Though Totals Vary by Source
Exactly how many Georgians have already voted depends on which count you trust and when it was taken. The Georgia Recorder reported that about 1.6 million people had cast ballots with five days remaining before early in-person voting ended Friday, October 30, while Atlanta News First put the figure at more than 1.2 million, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported voters had topped 1 million ballots. Whichever number is accurate, the pattern underneath it is consistent: women are outpacing men in early voting by roughly 10 percentage points, and younger voters are turning out at higher rates than their older counterparts, per the AJC's analysis.
Black voters, described by the AJC as the Democratic Party's most loyal constituency, account for about 35% of the early vote so far. The paper also found that overall turnout is running slightly ahead of the same point in the 2022 midterms. Ossoff struck a similar note at the church service, telling the congregation Georgia was seeing record-shattering youth turnout for a midterm election, according to a statement posted on his campaign site, electjon.com. The same post noted Ossoff voted early in person himself on October 13, the first day early voting opened.
Republicans Make Their Own Final Push
Democrats aren't the only ones working the phones and the pews. Former Georgia governor and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue warned Republican crowds that the GOP is behind in early voting, telling supporters in middle and south Georgia bluntly: “They're up in early voting. You know what that means? If we stay home in middle Georgia ... in south Georgia, they win,” according to the Georgia Recorder. Ossoff, for his part, also campaigned Saturday alongside former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg at a canvassing event back in Atlanta, the outlet reported.
With the early-voting clock running out Friday and Election Day arriving the following Tuesday, Georgia voters who haven't yet cast a ballot have a narrowing set of options. The Georgia Secretary of State notes that voters can use the Georgia My Voter Page to confirm registration status, find county early-voting locations and review a sample ballot before heading to the polls.
