Rally against voter suppression.

Last Thursday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a sweeping voter suppression bill into law that allows for more legislative oversight and control on election proceedings. The bill has a couple of positive provisions, like lengthening the time of early voting in general elections, but they fail to compensate for the negative.

Happy Monday and welcome back to the Anti-Racism Daily! We covered this topic briefly last June on the anniversary of Shelby County v. Holder, and it's all the more relevant with the law that passed in Georgia last week. I didn't realize how many other states have similar legislation pending – so stay alert for the latest in yours.

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Nicole

TAKE ACTION

Donate to the New Georgia Project, a nonpartisan effort to register and educate Georgia voters. The most effective way to reverse these laws is to create a Democratic-led state government in 2022.
Voter suppression laws are in progress in several other states right now. If you live in teh following states, click the link to take action (provided by Fair Fight): Arizona | Georgia | Florida | New Hampshire | Texas.
Sign the petition to encourage your Congresspeople to pass H.R. 1 and H.R. 4.

GET EDUCATED

By Nicole Cardoza (she/her)

Absentee voters have to submit a driver’s license, state ID or other proof of their identity.
Absentee ballot drop boxes can only be located in early voting locations (which are often placed predominately in wealthier, white neighborhoods)
Drop boxes won’t be available in the last days of an election (after it’s too late to mail ballots in)
The State Election Board is now managed more by the state legislature, who now have the power to suspend anyone for inappropriate conduct
It shortens runoff elections from nine weeks to less than a month and cuts the early voting required from three weeks to one week. Consider how critical the runoff election in Georgia was for establishing a Democratic Senate in early 2021.

(NBC News)

The most blatant addition prohibits volunteers from distributing items like food, water, and folding chairs to voters waiting in long lines. Because of the lack of polling locations available, Georgia voters – particularly those of color – waited hours to be able to vote in the 2020 elections (NBC News). Not only is this an apparent attempt to deter individuals from voting, but it’s also troubling that the government finds it appropriate to ban a human from providing food and sustenance to another while participating in their civic duty.

When asked during his first formal news conference, President Biden was adamantly against the law, stating that it “makes Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle” (Washington Post). Stacey Abrams called the law Jim Crow 2.0. On Twitter, Kemp proudly shared a photo of the occasion, depicting him seated at a table, surrounded by six white men, signing the bill (Twitter). Reporter Will Bunch from The Philadelphia Inquirer noted that the painting in the background featured the Callaway Plantation, a plantation in Wilkes County, GA, where hundreds of Black people were enslaved, which makes it all the more sinister. Read the full story on Will Bunch’s Twitter thread.

To fully understand the context, we have to analyze its similarities with voter suppression laws of the Jim Crow era. By definition, voter suppression, is when the state or federal government intentionally makes it difficult for people to exercise their right to vote. The Fair Fight PAC breaks down three fundamental voting stages: voter registration, access to polls, and ballot counting. Voter suppression can happen at any stage of this process. Although voter suppression affects everyone from having a fair and democratic election, it usually directly impacts communities of color, the elderly, people with disabilities, and others systemically marginalized in our country.

Voter suppression for Black people has been around since the beginning. The 15th Amendment, enacted in 1870, made it unconstitutional to deny any man the right to vote based "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude” (National Geographic). But, Black men were often barred from the polls, along with other people of color, through state-wide rules and regulations that limited their rights. This wasn’t just a racial decision but a political one; during that time, Black people overwhelmingly voted Republican (the party of Abraham Lincoln).

States implemented polling taxes – which made it too expensive for any poor person to vote. Some also started to use literacy tests to thwart Black people, knowing that many weren’t granted the opportunity to learn – and were punished for attempting to.

Side note: The grandfather clause is often included as a form of voter suppression. This practice granted prospective voters eligibility if their father or grandfather had voted in the past. This obviously did bar non-white voters from voting, but it was actually implemented to enfranchise uneducated and/or poor white men, so the poll taxes and literacy tests didn’t block them. The law became obsolete after a Supreme Court ruling in 1939, but the “grandfathered in” terminology still remains (NPR).

In Mississippi in 1890, the state went so far as to require voters to read and interpret a section of the state constitution chosen by a local official. White people were given simple clauses to read and were often assisted by poll workers. In contrast, Black people were given the most incomprehensible clauses that even the most well-read political figure may not have understood. During his run for re-election, Democratic Senator, Mississipi Governor and noted white supremacist Theodore Bilbos said the following:

“

The poll tax won’t keep ’em from voting. What keeps ’em from voting is section 244 of the constitution of 1890 that Senator George wrote. It says that for a man to register, he must be able to read and explain the constitution...and then Senator George wrote a constitution that damn few white men and no niggers at all can explain.

(Race and Liberty in America: The Essential Reader)

These laws were effective. In Mississippi, less than 9,000 of the 147,000 voting-age Black people were registered to vote after 1890. In Louisiana in 1896, there were 130,000 registered Black voters. But this number plummeted to 1,342 by 1904 (Smithsonian).

It wasn't until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that the federal government attempted to eradicate these voting laws. Within four years of its enactment, Black voter registration increased from 25% to 65% (Brennan Center). But seven years ago, the Supreme Court significantly weakened the Voting Rights Act. In its June 25, 2013 ruling in Shelby County v. Holder, the Court rejected a provision of the Voting Rights Act that determined which jurisdictions with a history of discrimination had to “pre-clear” changes to their election rules with the federal government before implementing them. This gave states a free pass to make whichever rules they see fit without oversight (Brennan Center).

This enabled states like Georgia to implement new laws that disenfranchise voters. One rule, the “use it or use it” law, allows states to remove their citizens from the voter registration list if they didn’t vote in past elections. The "exact match" law requires that voters’ registration information exactly matches the information found at the state’s Department of Driver Services or the Social Security Administration. In 2017, the Georgia state government, led by then-Secretary of State Kemp, who had just announced his run for governor, used these two rules to remove over 600,000 voters from the registry (The New Republic). An additional 53,000 voter registrations were pending at the time of the election. Unsurprisingly, Kemp won the election against Stacey Abrams by roughly 55,000 votes (NBC News). You can read about other examples of modern-day disenfranchisement here.

Progressive leaders have been advocating for the passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would reinstate some of the changes made in 2013. They offer a more comprehensive view of discriminatory acts in the voting process that reflects modern-day (Brennan Center). The For the People Act, introduced in early 2021, is also designed to restore the VRA and end gerrymandering and reduce corporate spending in elections (Brennan Center). It’s possible, but not likely, that these will pass the Senate, but we can rally. More urgently, we must support the organizers in Georgia to ensure everyone has access to the resources they need, despite an equitable system. As you watch this conversation unfold, be sure to tune into the latest on voting rights in your state, too.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Last week, Georgia state legislatures passed voter suppression laws that will disproportionately impact marginalized communities.
These laws echo similar acts throughout history that tried to make it more difficult for people of color to access the polls.
Although the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 to end the Jim Crow voting laws, a provisional change in 2013 made it easier for states to create oppressive laws once again.

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Nicole Cardoza 11/9/20 Nicole Cardoza 11/9/20

Support the Georgia Senate runoffs.

Happy Monday and welcome back! This weekend, Joe Biden became President, bringing many people an exhale four years overdue. Many of you emailed me the same question: what now?

Now, the work begins again. We may soon be free from Donald Trump's tweets, but we are far from free. "Going back to normal" is still a world where Black people are killed by cops, where rising income inequality is forcing people from our homes, and a global pandemic threatens our way of life. The majority of white people in the U.S. voted for Trump, and it was the turnout of Black, Latinx and Indigenous folx that carried key states blue. Our work is unchanged. There is just one less obstacle in the way.

This is the Anti-Racism Daily, where we send one email each day to dismantle white supremacy. You can support our work by giving one time on our website, PayPal or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza). You can also give monthly or annually on Patreon. If this email was forwarded to you, you could subscribe at antiracismdaily.com.

Nicole

TAKE ACTION

Volunteer for both Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock. Many opportunities available for those outside GA and under the age of 18!
Donate to Fair Fight PAC, a nationwide group founded by Stacey Abrams that combats voter suppression and promotes “free and fair elections” in GA.
Donate to the Black Voters Matter organization, which is focused on voter registration and turnout for the Black community.
Georgia residents: Sign up to be a poll worker for the runoff election. Give those poll workers from the election a break!

GET EDUCATED

By Nicole Cardoza (she/her)

There are two Senate seats up for a runoff election in January. If Democrats win both, we will have a 50/50 Senate split and a Democratic VP making tie-breaking decisions (NPR). This political power could make both a lasting and immediate impact. Some key issues have been stalled in the Senate, like the second round of coronavirus relief (Vox), that could pass more swiftly. To do this, we need to win both seats in the run-off election in Georgia.

The rise of support for the Democratic governors, particularly as mail-in ballots were counted, was energizing. But as the votes trickled in, one thing was clear: both races were so close that neither of the candidates would reach majority-rule (or 50%) for victory (NPR). This means that both races are going into a runoff election, a second election to determine an ultimate winner (Ballotpedia).

The concept of runoff elections may be new to you. Georgia is one of only a few states that require voters in an election to reach a specific threshold before winning. Most of these states are in the South. And "fun" fact, runoff elections were designed specifically for white leaders to maintain power as the voter block diversified.

The runoff system was implemented in Georgia in the 1960s, an effort led by state representative Denmark Groover. Groover was a bit salty from losing an election in 1958 – although he carried the white vote, Black people voted for his opponent by a 5-1 margin. This demonstrated that, as usual throughout history, Black people overall tend to support one progressive candidate, whereas white people split their vote between many (Vox).

Afraid of the power this could give to Black people, Groover pushed for runoffs so that, even if Black people chose one candidate that was counter to the white vote, their majority wouldn't be enough to win (Vox). According to someone on his team, Groover was worried that "the Negroes and the pressure groups and special interests are going to manipulate this State and take charge if we don’t go for the majority vote" (Vox).

But Groover didn't come up with this idea on his own. Runoff elections were implemented in several Southern states to maintain the overwhelmingly Democratic (now Republican) control. At that time, Black people were rallying for their right to vote – despite deep voter suppression through literacy tests, poll taxes, etc. Meanwhile, the Populist Party was growing in popularity, too, and could split voters further. The Populist Party often shared the Democrats' view on race, though, and documents from that time indicate that the fears of Democrats then mirrored those of Groover: racial domination was key (Washington Post).

An important exception: Arkansas implemented runoff voting in the 1930s specifically to keep Klan members from winning primaries (Washington Post).

The DOJ sued to overturn the runoff system in 1900, but the motion was unsuccessful. Although the judges noted that race played a factor in its implementation, it's difficult to discern whether outcomes would be objectively better for Black voters if majority-rule weren't in place (Vox). But, if it weren't in place for this election, David Purdue would have won (with 49.7% of the vote, which is higher than Ossoff's 47.9% but still less than 50%), and we wouldn't have this opportunity to even the Senate.

So, let's take this opportunity and make the most of it. The presidential race results in Georgia were influenced by the outpouring of support from non-white communities and youth (NYTimes). This offers a blueprint for winning this election – doubling-down on those efforts and securing as many new voters as possible.

Winning these elections also prevents the two Republican senators, both with racist values and beliefs, from joining the senate. Kelly Loeffler, running against Rev. Raphael Warnock, has been adamant about her dislike of the Black Lives Matter movement (Washington Post). And David Purdue purposefully mocked Kamala Harris' name at a Trump rally (CNN) and ran an anti-Semitic ad against his opponent, Jon Ossoff (Politico).

The runoff election will be held on January 5, 2021. The deadline for voter registration is December 7, 2020. Early voting starts December 14, 2020. The time to act is now.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The two Senate races in Georgia are moving into a runoff election. If both Democrats win, we could have 50/50 representation in the Senate.
Georgia is one of only a few states that require voters in an election to reach a specific threshold before winning.
Runoff elections have been used throughout history for southern white conservatives to maintain racial power.