There will be people that deliberately submit blank ballots or overvoted ballots as a ‘protest.’ There always are.
Both GOP candidates win in a walk. It’s the pessimism burned into my soul as a Southern Democrat who’s seen way too many of these to believe anymore. The general is a time when upsets can be pulled off. Special elections are not.
I would LOVE to be wrong, but I don’t think I am.
Indeed, something to suss out over the coming weeks.
Yes. I am not a GA resident. After reading that same article, my family and I decided to put out GA GOTV efforts to handwriting and addressing 500 postcards to GA residents in a data-driven list. There is apparently evidence that a hand-written reminder card is one of the few media that has a chance of penetrating the annoying slew of television ads, phone calls, and impersonal junk mail.
We don’t include a return address, and we end the message with our first name.
We’ll see.
(Preparing and stamping the cards didn’t take as long as we’d feared — we listened to R.E.M., OutKast, and James Brown. We’re not supposed to send them until just after Christmas.)
Are there any polls? Georgia after all was one of the states for which they were moderately accurate.
Good question. Very few so far (see here — Georgia 2020 Senate Runoff Election Polls - 270toWin) — these show the race essentially tied at this point.
I’m sure there will be more, and better, ones in coming weeks.
Metro Atlanta blew up from 1.4 million to 5.5 million in a 3 decade period. Half of the state is from ‘somewhere else’ in my experience. 
I remember The Guardian’s effort in 2004 to get their British readers to write letters to undecided voters in Ohio to try to persuade them to vote for Kerry. Over 11,000 readers wrote letters to individual Ohio voters arguing why Bush was a disaster for the world. The article about the result was headlined, “Dear Limey Assholes. . .”
Ouch!
The difference, though, is that the actions of US senators really do affect all Americans, more directly than a US president affects the lives of Brits.
When I read that recent post-mortem article about Collins and Gideon, most of the way I was thinking “Fine, good for Mainers, keep your dignity and independence…,” but toward the end I thought, “FUCK THAT! How selfish! Don’t you realize your vote will likely make a huge difference for how the next four years or more play out — for ALL Americans?”
Omg, I never heard about this. Thanks!
It’s fine to feel that way, but it doesn’t change the fact that many voters instinctively get their hackles up when they feel like they’re being lectured to by “outsiders.” If an attempt to persuade voters for one candidate ends up having the opposite effect, then it was counterproductive. I assume Georgia voters would react less strongly to communications from Californians than from Brits, but it is something that has to be handled deftly.
Oh, absolutely. I’m sure that’s why I was instructed to not put my (out-of-state) return address on those postcards to Georgians.
Humans are territorial and “us/them”-oriented (duh). Check out Jared Diamond’s book “The World Before Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?”
I can’t remember where I saw it; but I read an article pleading with out of state people who want to help to follow the lead of the existing local organizations which got out the vote in November: to send money or, if you really want to actively do something personally, to do it under their direction. I wish I could remember where I saw that, I think it had links.
But will they be mailed - and postmarked - from within Georgia?
No. True, there will be clues to the out-of-state origin. But hopefully the reminder and encouragement will be helpful for some.
Did you check with the Georgia get-out-the-vote organizations about whether they’re requesting out-of-state postcards?
You could try here: deleted by What Exit?, see below
Thanks. We did ours through deleted by What Exit?, see below (link broken in case it violates SDMB rules). They recommend just putting them in the mail from your home state.
Mod Note: Please, no links to Call to Action sites and Fundraising sites without Admin or Mod permission. I have to delete the link you provided.
ditto
This is just a guidance, not a warning. Nothing on your permanent record.
Okay, thanks. Is it okay to refer to “Postcardstoswingstates” as the source of information?
Apologies; I forgot about that rule.
JKellyMap, my point was suggesting checking specifically with a Georgia group; they would know better how such postcards generally come across in their areas.