Faith leader weighs in on Georgia's Senate runoff

Published December 13, 2022 at 1:05 PM EST

FILE - People gather during a get out the vote rally Nov. 27, 2022, in Atlanta, during early voting for the Senate runoff election. Voters in Georgia appear to have navigated the strict election law passed last year by Republicans with little difficulty. But voting rights groups say it’s too soon to assess the full impact of the law, since it’s not certain how many voters may have been dissuaded from casting a ballot. (AP Photo/Ben Gray, File)

Two Way Talk segment with Rev. Daniel Thomas, coordinating voter outreach for the AME Church.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Georgia’s 2022 election season ended dramatically this past week.

That was because of the closely watched Senate runoff that solidified Democratic control of the chamber, and not because of any large-scale problems with voting.

And that's prompting Georgia Republicans to say concerns over a 2021 law that imposed several new restrictions on voting were overblown.

Voting rights and community groups say their grassroots efforts to work around the new restrictions were key to the relatively strong turnout.

But they also say they don’t know how many people might have been deterred from voting due to the new restrictions.