In battleground Georgia, poor people see no reason to vote. This decision could influence the elections

But Georgia’s less urban areas are only part of the electoral puzzle. The story is dramatically different in Atlanta and its vote-rich suburbs, where enthusiasm is high for both Harris and Trump, though often divided by race.

A party to watch the presidential debate drew many wealthy residents to Buckhead Art & Company, in an upscale neighborhood of the city. Many of the dozens of attendees, including owner and host Karimah McFarlane, were part of the Howard University graduate network. The party had a panel discussion that urged participants to focus their efforts on getting young black people to vote. The first thing each guest encountered was the voter registration table, complete with information about Georgia’s system and various deadlines.

McFarlane explained that Atlanta attracted small business owners and others because of its business-friendly atmosphere. What may be less user-friendly is the voting system, with some newcomers particularly puzzled about how to vote absentee.

Across town, a voter registration campaign at Spelman College targeted first-time voters. Organized by members of Harris’ sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, and her Alpha Phi Alpha brothers at Morehouse College, the event began attracting potential registrants an hour before registration began. At its height, dozens of students crowded tables set up outside the student union and bookstore. Organizations could not campaign or support Harris, but students spoke freely.

Caleb Cage, 21, a religion major at Morehouse, said he’s seen enthusiasm build for the vice president “especially among people in my particular demographic, young people.” Cage is voting absentee in his home state of Maryland.

He said he had heard of young black people supporting Trump and his response was to remember what voting means. “To reiterate the sentiments of our Morehouse brother, Senator Raphael Warnock, a vote is a prayer for the future world you want to see.

But even on a historically black college campus, there was an awareness that messages that invigorate college students might not reach others. Elise Sampson, 20, a junior political science major at Spelman and a member of the sorority co-sponsoring the registration drive, said economic disparities needed to be part of the discussions.

“It all comes down to an affordability issue,” she said. “When people don’t feel heard and represented, it’s difficult to want to participate in a political system that doesn’t listen to them and doesn’t represent them.”

Malcolm Patterson, a 21-year-old finance major at Morehouse from Marietta, Georgia, was at the event to support the activity, adding that he was already registered.

“This is my first presidential election,” Patterson said. “It’s important for us to vote for the future we hope to see,” he said.

Even with the record number of votes cast in 2020, more than 75 million people eligible to vote did not vote, according to a study by the University of Southern California’s Center for Inclusive Democracy.

AP VoteCast, a survey of voters and nonvoters, showed that nonvoters in 2020 tended to be poorer, younger, less educated, single and minority. The data, collected by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, also revealed that among voters in 2020, 15% reported having a household income of less than $25,000 the previous year, compared to about 3 in 10 non- voters. Compare these characteristics to a population of 27 million adults living below poverty, according to the census, and the numbers suggest that people on the lower rungs of the economic ladder likely constitute a significant subset of all non-voters.

In 2020, turnout among people eligible to vote in Georgia was 66.3%, nearly matching the national figure of 66.8%, according to the Center for Inclusive Democracy, with the lowest turnout among Black and Black voters. Latinos.

The Republican-controlled legislature has sought changes aimed at redressing complaints fueled by Trump’s false claims of voter fraud in 2020. (Trump faces criminal charges in the state for his actions in trying to overturn the result.) That includes requiring a manual count of all. votes cast, although a Georgia judge has blocked that, at least for now. Another change requires homeless voters to use the address of their county election office rather than where they live, which could increase the number of impoverished non-voters.

The majority of Bibb County’s more than 150,000 residents are minorities and more than 60% are single. Four in 10 are under 30, and nearly half have a high school education or less. The poverty rate is above 25%, more than double the state and national averages.