In the early 1960s, Denmark Groover Jr., a Democratic lawmaker in Georgia, led the push there for a two-round voting system as part of a blatant attempt to suppress African American votes.
The segregationist argued that a runoff system in which a second ballot would be held if no candidate received at least half the votes on the first ballot would result in white voters consolidating their support behind a single candidate.
Nearly six decades later, the racially motivated structure Groover designed remains in place. Georgia is just one of two states, along with Louisiana, that require runoff elections if no candidate clears the 50 percent threshold on Election Day.
On Tuesday, voters there will square off again in a runoff between US Senator Raphael Warnock, the Democratic incumbent, and Herschel Walker, the former American football star and Republican challenger, which will determine the size of the Democratic Party’s majority in the Senate .
The contest is historic, and in some ways a sign of progress — it marks the first time in modern history that two black candidates in Georgia have faced off for a US Senate seat. According to state officials, more than 1.8 million Georgians have already cast their ballots in person or by mail, breaking the record for the number of ballots cast in a single day.
Still, the total number of early elections, and particularly the number of mail-in ballots, has paled in comparison to the last US Senate runoff in Georgia in early 2021 – when control of the upper chamber of Congress was at stake – and Democratic activists say new legislation passed by Republican legislatures are to blame.
“The story of this whole election cycle, and this runoff in particular, really lies in the fact that Georgia voters have faced so many hurdles,” said Vasu Abhiraman, senior policy counsel for the ACLU of Georgia.
Debate in Georgia focused on the Election Integrity Act of 2021, also known as Georgia Senate Bill 202 or SB202, which was passed by the Georgia legislature and signed into law by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp last year.
The law overhauled the state’s voting rules, including introducing new voter ID requirements, limiting the use of ballot boxes introduced in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and reducing the time voters had to apply for have postal votes.
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It also cut the time between voting rounds in a runoff election from nine weeks to four weeks — something Democrats say puts an undue burden on poll workers and limits voter access to early voting. The early voting deadline for this year’s runoff was just five days, compared to more than two weeks in the 2020 election cycle.
“With this ridiculous four-week drain cycle, we’re looking at something of a science experiment in terms of the effects of suppressive . . . Voter politics in the state of Georgia,” Abhiraman said.
Senator Raphael Warnock waves to supporters as he arrives at a campaign rally at Georgia Tech in Atlanta on Monday © AP
The shortened early voting schedule has resulted in long lines at many polling stations – and has prompted organizers to warn voters casting their ballots on Tuesday that they could wait in line for some time.
Christopher Clark, a 40-year-old who works for a medical software company in Atlanta, waited two and a half hours last Saturday to cast his vote for Warnock.
“This is unacceptable,” he said. “I can’t think of anything to invest two and a half hours in. I really, really had to want this. And that’s really ridiculous.”
SB202 has sparked controversy not only in Georgia but across the country as Republicans in other state legislatures propose tougher voting laws in the wake of the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision that nullified the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Joe Biden, the US President, issued a statement shortly after the Georgia Act was signed into law last year, calling it “Jim Crow at 21 in the American South, and arguing that many of the changes would disproportionately affect people of color.”
As an example, Biden said the law was unfair to shift workers because polling stations would close before they could leave work. He also accused Republicans of closing polling stations in predominantly black neighborhoods, leading to longer lines.
Republicans dismissed Biden’s claims. Kemp said the President’s comments were “disingenuous and utterly false,” while Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said, “The cries of ‘voter suppression’ from those on the left ring hollow.” in some places, but also increased the number of mailboxes and early voting opportunities in rural areas.
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Black voters tend to overwhelmingly support Democratic candidates, while voters in rural areas tend to favor Republicans. In the first round of voting in Georgia’s Senate race last month, 90 percent of black voters backed Warnock, compared to just 8 percent who voted for Walker, according to AP VoteCast data.
Analysis of the Financial Times voting data released by Georgia’s foreign minister showed that black turnout in the first round last month fell about 12 percent compared to the last midterm elections in 2018, while white turnout rose slightly.
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Democratic activists nonetheless struck an upbeat note, saying they have focused their efforts largely on educating voters about the law and voting.
“People are . . . aware of the attempts to take over our power that have taken place over the past calendar year. They understand that voting in Georgia is sometimes difficult and confusing, especially for black people, for young people and for others who tend to vote progressives,” said Elijah Grace, field director at the New Georgia Project Action Fund. “Anyway, we show up and we show up.”
