Georgia’s Runoff System Was Created to Hurt the Power of Black Residents

Tuesday’s Senate runoff between Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican candidate Herschel Walker is the result of a general election system that was pushed by a powerful segregationist who wanted to limit the power of Black voters.

The Washington Post reported that while 10 states currently use the runoff in primary elections, Georgia and Louisiana are the only ones to use it in general elections. Georgia’s runoff system was created in 1964 at the request of Denmark Groover, who blamed Black people when he lost a reelection bid and proposed runoffs.

Groover, who was also behind two redesigns of the state flag, one of which included the Confederate Flag, later admitted that the system was intended to suppress the power of Black voters and their political representation. Ashton Ellett, a political historian at the University of Georgia, told The Post that the Peach State’s adoption of the two-round system was a way of “ensuring a conservative White candidate won an election.”

“A runoff makes it harder for folks who have less resources to vote. This was before advanced in-person voting or [voting was offered] by mail and when we had many other unfair, iniquitous, undemocratic policies. It wasn’t for a partisan advantage so much as an ideological and cultural one,” Ellett added.

The runoff system was part of a flurry of changes to America’s election system during the mid-1960s as Black Americans and activists marched and died for the right to vote fairly, and previous techniques to suppress Black votes, including Jim Crow laws, poll taxes, literacy tests, intimidation, and violence became illegal.

More than 50 years later, the runoff system was used in the first election in U.S. history where two Black men fought for a U.S. Senate seat. Neither candidate discussed the system during their campaigns or the runoff.

Runoffs in Georgia are common when it comes to local and down-ballot races, but the runoff between the two Senate candidates was only the 12th statewide runoff since the system was created. Voting rights advocates, including Stacey Abrams‘ Fair Fight organization, have been pushing to get rid of the system.

Bernard Fraga, a political science professor at Emory University, told The Post that the runoff system adds intentional friction to the voting process and provides “a second chance for the majority group to consolidate support and stymies efforts by numerical minorities to build a winning coalition.”