The Press in Atlanta | A vote like a prayer

Enthusiasm, fatigue, worry. On the eve of the American election, which they experienced like a marathon, voters in Georgia, one of the key states in the race for the White House, do not hide their contradictory emotions. At a legendary Atlanta church on Sunday, thousands turned to prayer to re-energize themselves to the finish line.

“Come on!” Go ahead! », Launches, from the last pew of the church, a woman in her fifties. “Yes, that’s it,” exclaims a young man in his twenties, wearing his Sunday best. “Amen!” ”, we hear from the other end of the room.

The least we can say is that Reverend Raphael Warnock’s sermon leaves no one indifferent in the Ebenezer Baptist Church in downtown Atlanta, the megacity in the southern United States.

The pastor, who is also one of the two senators representing Georgia in Congress since 2021, draws on the Gospel according to Saint Matthew to talk about the election, the outcome of which will be known on Tuesday.

Not once does he mention the name of Donald Trump or that of Kamala Harris, even if his preference for the latter is not in doubt. “A vote is a kind of prayer. We can wish for what we wish for ourselves, our families, our children,” he said from the outset after intoning Amazing Grace with his congregation and a choir of around thirty people. “We must heal our nation. Of the division that fractured us. Cynicism. Anger. Distractions. […] Forgive us, God, for our selfish folly in our desire to take control,” he continues as several worshipers wipe away a tear or raise their hands to heaven.

This is not the first time the Ebenezer Church congregation has been treated to a political speech during Sunday service. Martin Luther King Jr., a leading figure in the civil rights movement, grew up in this church and was co-pastor with his father until his assassination in 1968. In the pulpit and in the streets, the follower of non -violence fought against the system of segregation and for the right to vote for black Americans.

At the end of the electoral campaign where it is impossible to predict the winner because the polls are so close, this heritage does not escape the members of the “historically black” church.

“As a member of this church, I feel privileged, because I have witnessed the great battles of civil rights,” adds the man who was baptized by Martin Luther King and who attended Sunday school with one of his daughters. “At the time, when we wanted to go to the theater, we were forced to use the side door,” he remembers. There is no question of going back! »

Even though certain promises from Donald Trump were appealing to him – notably on the withdrawal of taxes on overtime and tips – the former oil industry worker chose Kamala Harris and voted in advance.

And this is what a good part of the voters who were at Sunday mass also seem to have done, judging by the response of the faithful when the pastor mentioned the early voting which ended on Friday.

Members of the Ebenezer Church are far from the exception in the American South state that Joe Biden won by just 11,780 votes in 2020. According to Georgia’s secretary of state, more than 4 million of the state’s 7 million active voters have already decided, either by showing up at one of the advance polling stations, which were open from October 15 to 1^is November, or by voting by mail. This is an absolute record for the State, but also, in relative numbers, for the entire country.

For what ?

In 2020, organizations set up by African-American politician Stacey Abrams played a crucial role in mobilizing the Democratic vote, especially among members of Georgia’s large black community, who make up 25% of the electorate. , adds the political scientist.

This time, it is difficult to predict who will benefit from the zeal of Georgian voters, but we already know that women, young people and voters over 50 are over-represented among those who have already filled out their ballots. vote. Black voters are slightly underrepresented.

Across the country, 74 million voters had already voted on Sunday morning, or 46% of the votes recorded in 2020. The trend is particularly strong in the seven key states where the presidential election is being played out, namely Pennsylvania. , Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, Nevada, Michigan and Wisconsin.

“It’s stressful living in a swing state. We have been bombarded for months by political advertisements, text messages, emails, calls from pollsters. And it’s been going on for too long. The campaign has been going on for two years. We can’t wait to move on, even if we’re afraid of the result,” a businesswoman I met in a restaurant in chic Midtown told me.

The early mobilization of voters, however, does not seem to have had an impact on the campaigns of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. In one week, Georgia received more visits from candidates to the White House than during the entire 2016 presidential campaign.

On Sunday, the churches of the southern state, which are far from all sharing the same political opinions, also participated in the mobilization effort. “We are all aware that this is a crucial election. It is American democracy that is at stake. Georgia understands that it plays an important role,” notes Wanda Morris, leaving mass at Ebenezer Church. In her buttonhole, she wears a Democratic campaign button on which we can read “I have understood the duty assigned to me”.