For a moment on the evening of November 3, 2020, many Democratic voters feared a repeat of election night 2016, which saw former Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, the clear favorite to win the presidency, end the night in defeat. Granted, many factors ended Clinton’s historic candidacy that paved the way for the Trump era in American politics, but almost no single decision made by the Clinton Campaign came under the amount of scrutiny that the Electoral College faced following Clinton’s devastating loss.

With early voting in Georgia scheduled to end on October 30, and with more than 3.2 million Georgians having already cast their ballot as of October 27, according to data from the secretary of state’s office, early voting turnout has broken records in the state—and depending on who you ask—is an indication of a blue wave in favor of a Biden presidency or an influx of Trump supporters who are secretly casting their ballot for the incumbent. Regardless of which candidate will receive the popular vote on election night, it’s the electoral college that matters—a painful civics lesson that many Americans were forced to relearn on election night 2016. Elections have consequences. And judging by the lines that stretched for blocks and lasted for hours at many polling places throughout metro Atlanta, voters appear to be using the power of their vote in response to a litany of shortcomings from national leadership.

As Americans are laser-focused on the upcoming presidential election on November 3, there’s another local election that may have slipped under the radar for some, but like all down-ballot races, is equally important. Longtime Atlanta politician, Kwanza Hall (D-District 5), 49, a former member of the Atlanta City Council and a former mayoral candidate, is facing a runoff on December 1 against challenger Dr. Robert Franklin (D-District 5) after neither candidate secured fifty-percent of the vote during a special election in September to fill the District 5 congressional seat left vacant after the death of the late civil rights icon John Lewis.

The Reckoning spoke with Hall, who has been endorsed by Lewis’s son, John Miles-Lewis, about his campaign, his political platform, his allyship to the LGBT community, and his agenda for his short stay in Congress, if elected.

Your power is in your vote. The 2020 presidential election is shaping up to be one of the most important elections in the history of modern politics. And with voter enthusiasm at an all-time high and record turnout during the first week of early voting in Georgia, it’s imperative that voters are equipped with the information they need in order to successfully cast their ballot.