Ebenezer to host election eve ‘Get Out the Vote’ prayer rally

By Shelia Poole

Nov 5, 2018

Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta will host an election eve prayer rally featuring Senior Pastor Raphael G. Warnock, the Rev. William Barber II, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Cynthia Hale.

The free, nonpartisan rally begins at 7 p.m. Monday at the historic church, which is on the corner of Jackson Street and Auburn Avenue.

Performers will include Angie Stone, Byron Cage, Dottie Peoples and BeBe Winans.

Georgia has been a focus of national attention during the midterm elections with a hotly contested gubernatorial race pitting Democrat Stacey Abrams against Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp.

The Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II (second from left) and the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis (left), co-chairs of the Poor People's Campaign, speak at the National Civil Rights Museum earlier this year in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

The race has brought in heavy hitters such as former President Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey and U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris for Abrams and President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence for Kemp.

There has been high turnout for early voting. Almost 2.1 million votes have been cast in Georgia ahead of Tuesday's election.

If Abrams wins, she will become the nation’s first black female governor.

Meanwhile, just two days before the election Kemp's office has accused the Democratic Party of attempting to hack the state's voter registration system. The allegations were made without evidence of the hacking. Democrats have called the allegations "100 percent false."

There have also been widespread allegations of voter suppression, particularly of African-Americans voters, which Kemp denies.

A federal judge recently ruled that new U.S. citizens must be allowed to cast regular ballots if they show proof of citizenship at the polls.

Kemp had argued that state law already provides a process for new citizens to vote, according to a previous article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Other speakers at the rally include best-selling author and theologian Jim Wallis; U.S. Rep. John Lewis; the Rev. Traci Blackmon, executive minister of justice for the United Church of Christ; and Rabbi Sharon Brous of IKAR in Los Angeles.