MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
And I'm Mary Louise Kelly in Atlanta, where it is Election Day - finally, the day that Georgians and the country have been waiting for. As these two Senate runoffs come to a vote, millions of people in Georgia have already voted. They are expecting hundreds of thousands, maybe up to a million people voting in person today on election day. We have just pulled up to a church, which is a polling site. This is Cobb County, Ga. So we're actually just a tiny bit outside the city limits - watching people come and go - about to walk up and try to talk to a few of them.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Good morning.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: How are you?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: And you just vote in here?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Doing well.
KELLY: There was a line early this morning at the Life Church Smyrna Assembly of God, we heard. But when we were there - just a steady stream of people heading in, coming out, earning stickers with I voted scrawled across a Georgia peach. One of them - Angie Carmichael, lifelong resident of Smyrna, regular voter, voted in November. But she was not sure she was going to vote in this runoff.
ANGIE CARMICHAEL: Because I didn't want to vote at all. But my husband's taking me to lunch, and I told him I would vote (laughter).
KELLY: Like a number of people we've met here in Georgia, Carmichael has taken on board the president's claims of fraud and a stolen election, claims that have no facts to support them but that have raised doubts in voters' minds about the integrity of the election system.
CARMICHAEL: I just don't like everything that's going on right now. And I feel like the first election was rigged. So I don't see my point in voting, but we'll see what happens. At least I did my part.
KELLY: Also here today - Ken Jones, holding the hand of his daughter Addison. She's only 5, but this is not the first time he's brought her along to watch him vote.
KEN JONES: Like, even me - I didn't vote early on in my younger days. I started to feel more empowered in the process probably over the last maybe 20 years, and so - you know, just taking an active role. And I want that - to instill that in my kids. So yeah.
KELLY: Ken Jones also has his concerns about election security. Jones, who is Black, says part of that stems from the history of Georgia elections not being free and fair for all voters - also, the possibility of human error.
JONES: I just hope that there are enough people that want to see a fair election - are standing by and fighting the fight to make sure that that, you know, doesn't happen. But I do feel like in this situation, we'll - you know, hopefully we'll have enough of a turnout that it leaves, you know, no doubt. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
