Runoff elections set up in Georgia in early 1960s by segregationists to keep Black voters from participating

But high turnout, diverse electorate & 2 years of organizing against voter suppression could be the difference for Dem Senate candidates on Jan 5 https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/12/runoff-elections-in-georgia-are-disasters-for-democrats-heres-why-this-time-is-different/

In 1963 segregationist GA Rep proposed runoff elections "as a means of circumventing what is called the Negro bloc vote.” GOP has dominated since then

But record turnout in 2020, organizing against suppression & diverse Biden coalition giving Dems hope for Senate races

Incredible GA stats showing power of organizing against suppression by @staceyabrams @nseufot @MsLaToshaBrown etc

-1 million new voters registered from 2016-2020, 2/3 people of color

-# of unregistered voters fell from 22% to 2%

-Rejected mail ballots fell from 3.4% to .2%

Disturbing news from GA: Cobb County, 3rd largest in state & which swung heavily to Biden, cutting # of early voting locations from 11 to 5 for runoff, including in areas with large concentrations of Black & Latino voters https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/12/07/us/joe-biden-trump/third-largest-county-in-georgia-to-open-fewer-than-half-of-early-voting-locations-for-senate-runoffs

most of Cobb’s Black and Latino voters live in the southern portion of the county, where four locations have been folded into one site that is “all the way at the bottom of south Cobb and is not accessible to many of the voters in those communities” https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/12/07/voting-rights-groups-alarmed-after-cobb-county-reduced-early-voting-sites-ga-senate-runoffs/