\n\n“At first glance, Georgia\u2019s lawrequiring majorities for an outright victory seems inoffensive \u2014 the person who wins has to be chosen by most of the people who cast their votes. In theory, this would force candidates to appeal to more voters instead of winning with a large plurality of votes while holding views anathema to the majority of the electorate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Georgia\u2019s runoff system has a darker origin: Many historians say it was designed to make it harder for the preferred candidates of Black voters to win, and to suppress Black political power.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It effectively began in 1962<\/a>, when the Supreme Court struck down Georgia\u2019s old electoral system. That older system, called a \u201ccounty-unit system,\u201d was created 45 years prior to amplify rural voters\u2019 power while disadvantaging Black voters\u2019, and was \u201ckind of a poor man\u2019s Electoral College,\u201d University of Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock told Vox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Forced to come up with a new system, Georgia created one intended to continue undermining Black voters\u2019 influence. That was the runoff system”<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n “”In 1963, state representative Denmark Groover from Macon introduced a proposal to apply majority-vote, runoff election rules to all local, state, and federal offices. A staunch segregationist, Groover\u2019s hostility to black voting was reinforced by personal experience. Having served as a state representative in the early 1950s, Groover was defeated for election to the House in 1958. The Macon politico blamed his loss on \u201cNegro bloc voting.\u201d He carried the white vote, but his opponent triumphed by garnering black ballots by a five-to-one margin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Groover soon devised a way to challenge growing black political strength. Elected to the House again in 1962, he led the fight to enact a majority vote, runoff rule for all county and state contests in both primary and general elections. Until 1963, plurality voting was widely used in Georgia county elections””<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Groover wanted to stop Black Georgians from voting as a \u201cbloc\u201d \u2014 that is, overwhelmingly for one candidate or party \u2014 while white Georgians split their votes among many candidates. In a plurality system, if Black voters were able to keep a coalition behind one candidate, they wouldn\u2019t need the support of many white voters for their preferred candidate to win elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The method was popular across theformer Confederacy: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas allhave general election runoffs. As the Washington Post reported<\/a>, just two non-Southern states have runoff rules, and those \u201calmost never matter\u201d”<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n “There are some, like Bullock, who don\u2019t believe this was designed to be a racially discriminatory institution, pointing out that the use of runoffs began at a time when Black voters had already been largely eliminated from the voter rolls. Others have said there were good governance reasons for implementing the runoff system<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, Cal Jillson, a professor at Southern Methodist University, told the Washington Post<\/a> that most of the states that adopted runoff systems did it to \u201cmaintain white Democratic domination of local politics. Letters and speeches that survive from the period show race was very much on the minds of those Democrats who advocated the primary-runoff process. \u2018People had no misgivings about stating their real intentions and stating them in racial terms,\u2019\u201d Jillson told the paper.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n “As if to simplify the historical record, decades after Groover fought to institute run-off elections, he admitted: \u201cI was a segregationist. I was a county unit man. But if you want to establish if I was racially prejudiced. I was. If you want to establish that some of my political activity was racially motivated, it was.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n