6th District to Be Decided Today

Election Day is finally here in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District.

Today, June 20, polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the district sweeping from East Cobb through North Fulton to North DeKalb, giving voters a chance to choose between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Karen Handel to fill the seat vacated when Tom Price resigned to become President Donald Trump’s health and human services secretary.

Georgia will get either its first Jewish congressman since Elliott Levitas or its first congresswoman since Cynthia McKinney.

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Door-to-door canvassing and a months-long advertising blitz in the most expensive congressional election in U.S. history — over $40 million spent on TV commercials alone — appear to have succeeded in maintaining intense interest in the election, seen as a test of Trump’s popularity and Democrats’ potential to win the House in 2018.

Secretary of State Brian Kemp reported Monday that 140,308 votes were cast early, with the potential for more absentee ballots to arrive and be counted today. That total is roughly 2½ times the number of early votes during the April 18 general election among 18 candidates.

A WSB-TV poll of 500 likely voters, conducted after the shooting at the Republican congressional baseball practice in Virginia last week and released Monday, showed the race too close to call. Ossoff had 49.0 percent support to 48.9 percent for Handel, with a margin of error of 4.4 percent.

The 6th District is home to perhaps 40 percent of Jewish Atlanta’s population, representing about 8 percent of the district overall, and the campaign has produced intense interest, activism and debate within the Jewish community. A JTA report Monday called Jewish mothers and daughters Ossoff’s secret weapon.

Congregation Etz Chaim Rabbi Daniel Dorsch had the final word on the AJT blogs, the home of a robust debate about the election, with his call for all who are eligible to vote.

Naturally, both candidates are campaigning hard to the end.

Ossoff appeared on MSNBC’s “The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell” on Monday night.

Karen Handel had events with Price and former Gov. Sonny Perdue, Trump’s agriculture secretary, in her final push after releasing her last campaign video.

If you’re still undecided, here’s all the AJT has published about the campaign.

Follow us on Twitter (@AtlJewishTimes) tonight for updates as the votes are counted. You can read all about the results at atlantajewishtimes.com and in our print newspaper Wednesday.