NOVEMBER 30th Tuesday In GEORGIA - RunOff Elections - 6 reasons to get your butt to a voting booth Tues — Project Q Atlanta

Really, it’s not the lingering after effects from all the tryptophan you ingested over Turkey Day—or the alcohol, if you spent the holiday with our family. Tomorrow is Election Day. Again.

Think of it like this: It’s your Sarah Palin-esque duty to God and country to hit the polls tomorrow. Or put another way: Your ass got bigger over Thanksgiving, and you really could use the outdoor exercise.

So scoot on over to your neighborhood precinct and cast a ballot on Tuesday. With the small turnout expected, you and your annoying neighbor really can make a difference this time.

To help, those do-gooders at Georgia Equality offer some advice. http://georgiaequality.org/

Vote for their candidates, and you cast a ballot for equality. Or a fair majority. Or something like that. It is Georgia, after all, so any candidate progressive enough to pursue an endorsement from the statewide gay rights group can’t be all bad.

We’ll let Jeff Graham (photo), Georgia Equality’s executive director, make the direct pitch on why you need to vote on Tuesday. He’s much more eloquent than us. (See above: tryptophan and alcohol.)

This is when it counts - such an incredibly small percentage of voters come out for runoff elections, the LGBT community in Georgia has the opportunity TOMORROW, November 30th to be a powerful and influencial force in some very important races!

Imagine - if we stand together and pledge to go to the polls and cast our vote, we can help shape the GA Supreme Court and help elect fair minded judges to the State Superior Court and the State Court of Appeals. Every one of the cases that these judges will hear is important to the individual parties involved; and many have implications for the larger community, including the LGBT community. Please consider the importance of these Judicial races, and what they could mean for LGBT individuals and families.

Also at stake in the upcoming runoff is the election of the Mayor of the City of Athens and Athens-Clarke County Commissioner District 5.

Your vote will make a difference in this election - remember…equality begins at home - please plan to vote tomorrow.

Here’s the cheat sheet of Georgia Equality endorsements:

Tammy Lynn Adkins, Georgia Supreme Court
Chris McFadden, Georgia Court of Appeals
Shelitha Robertson (second photo), Fulton Superior Court
Courtney Johnson, DeKalb Superior Court
Jared Bailey, Athens-Clarke Commission
Gwen O’Looney, Athens mayor

The statewide gay rights lobby endorsed 17 candidates on the ballot in November.
http://www.projectqatlanta.com/news_articles/view/Atlanta_gays_go_30-27_with_can...

Ten of those won and two were sent to the runoffs—Jared Bailey for the Athens-Clarke Commission and Chris McFadden for the Georgia Court of Appeals.

Georgia Equality has since endorsed three more candidates in races where their original pick lost—Tammy Lynn Adkins for Georgia Supreme Court, Shelitha Robertson for Fulton Superior Court and Courtney Johnson for DeKalb Superior Court. The group, aided by supporters in and around Athens, also offers up a runoff endorsement of Gewn O’Looney for Athens mayor.

Robertson survived a recount of her race for the Fulton judgeship.
http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/recount-costs-challenger-vote...

She placed second to Kelly Amanda Lee, who wasn’t endorsed by any LGBT groups that picked candidates this election cycle. Georgia Equality’s initial endorsed candidate, Chloe Dallaire, placed fourth in a five-way race to replace retiring Superior Court Judge Melvin Westmoreland.

Another interesting factoid about the Fulton race: Robertson, who has lobbied for gay votes at several LGBT events including the Pride parade, is an attorney credited with securing bail for the Eagle 8 when they were jailed in the botched Eagle raid in September 2009.

http://www.projectqatlanta.com/news_articles/category/eagle_raid