Editing Georgia (U.S. state) (section)

===Elections===
{{Main|Elections in Georgia (U.S. state)}}
{{See also|Political party strength in Georgia (U.S. state)}}

Georgia had voted [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] in six consecutive presidential elections from [[United States presidential election in Georgia, 1996|1996]] to [[United States presidential election in Georgia, 2016|2016]], a streak that was broken when the state went for [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] candidate [[Joe Biden 2020 presidential campaign|Joe Biden]] in [[United States presidential election in Georgia, 2020|2020]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Georgia 2020 presidential election results|url=https://www.cnn.com/election/2020/results/state/georgia/president|access-date=November 14, 2020|website=www.cnn.com}}</ref>

Until 1964, Georgia's state government had the longest unbroken record of single-party dominance, by the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]], of any state in the Union. This record was established largely due to the [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disenfranchisement of most blacks]] and many poor whites by the state in its constitution and laws in the early 20th century. Some elements, such as requiring payment of poll taxes and passing literacy tests, prevented blacks from registering to vote; their exclusion from the political system lasted into the 1960s and reduced the Republican Party to a non-competitive status in the early 20th century.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://umich.edu/~lawrace/votetour6.htm | title=Race, Voting Rights, and Segregation | work=University of Michigan | access-date=October 15, 2016}}</ref>

White Democrats regained power after Reconstruction due in part to the efforts of some using intimidation and violence, but this method came into disrepute.<ref name="auto1">{{cite book|last1=Saye|first1=Albert B.|title=A Constitutional History of Georgia, 1732–1945|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kwD3PrldCfUC&q=1908%20georgia%20constitutional%20amendment&pg=PA336|publisher=University of Georgia Press|access-date=May 18, 2016|isbn=9780820335544|date=May 1, 2010}}</ref> In 1900, shortly before Georgia adopted a disfranchising constitutional amendment in 1908, blacks comprised 47% of the state's population.<ref>[http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus/php/state.php Historical Census Browser, 1900 US Census, University of Virginia]. Retrieved March 15, 2008. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070823030234/http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus/php/state.php |date=August 23, 2007}}</ref>

The whites dealt with this problem of potential political power by the 1908 amendment, which in practice disenfranchised blacks and poor whites, nearly half of the state population. It required that any male at least 21 years of age wanting to register to vote must also: (a) be of good character and able to pass a test on citizenship, (b) be able to read and write provisions of the U.S. and Georgia constitutions, or (c) own at least 40 acres of land or $500 in property. Any Georgian who had fought in any war from the [[American Revolution]] through the [[Spanish–American War]] was exempted from these additional qualifications. More importantly, any Georgian descended from a veteran of any of these wars also was exempted. Because by 1908 many white Georgia males were grandsons of veterans and/or owned the required property, the exemption and the property requirement basically allowed only well-to-do whites to vote. The qualifications of good character, citizenship knowledge, and literacy (all determined subjectively by white registrars), and property ownership were used to disqualify most blacks and poor whites, preventing them from registering to vote. The voter rolls dropped dramatically.<ref name="auto1"/><ref>{{cite web|title=Georgia's 1908 Disfranchisement Constitutional Amendment|url=https://raycityhistory.wordpress.com/tag/georgias-1908-disfranchisement-constitutional-amendment/|website=Ray City History|publisher=Ray City Community Library|access-date=May 18, 2016}}</ref> In the early 20th century, [[Progressivism|Progressives]] promoted electoral reform and reducing the power of ward bosses to clean up politics. Their additional rules, such as the eight-box law, continued to effectively close out people who were illiterate.<ref name="auto"/> White one-party rule was solidified.

For more than 130 years, from 1872 to 2003, Georgians nominated and elected only white Democratic governors, and white Democrats held the majority of seats in the General Assembly.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ourgeorgiahistory.com/history101/gahistory10.html |title=A State Divided |publisher=Ourgeorgiahistory.com |access-date=July 27, 2014}}</ref> Most of the Democrats elected throughout these years were [[Southern Democrats]], who were fiscally and socially conservative by national standards.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.economist.com/node/17467202 |title=The long goodbye |publisher=Economist.com |date=November 11, 2010 |access-date=September 3, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://ngeorgia.com/history/postwar.html |title=The Confident Years |publisher=Ngeorgia.com |access-date=July 27, 2014}}</ref> This voting pattern continued after the segregationist period.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-campaign-georgia-congress-idUSBRE8A61MZ20121107 |title=Last white Democrat in House from Deep South wins re-election |publisher=Reuters.com |date= 2012|access-date=September 3, 2013}}</ref>

Legal segregation was ended by passage of federal legislation in the 1960s. According to the 1960 census, the proportion of Georgia's population that was African American was 28%; hundreds of thousands of blacks had left the state in the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] to the North and Midwest. New white residents arrived through migration and immigration. Following support from the national Democratic Party for the civil rights movement and especially civil rights legislation of 1964 and 1965, most African-American voters, as well as other minority voters, have largely supported the Democratic Party in Georgia.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ajc.com/news/white-voters-solidly-for-gop-georgia/3tKH7yW7hZloI8QwqY5ocJ/ |title=White voters solidly in for GOP in Georgia (October 16, 2012) |publisher=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |date=October 16, 2012 |access-date=June 4, 2021}}</ref> In the decades since the late 20th century, the conservative white-majority voters have increasingly supported Republicans for national and state offices.

In 2002, incumbent moderate Democratic Governor [[Roy Barnes]] was defeated by Republican [[Sonny Perdue]], a state legislator and former Democrat. While Democrats retained control of the State House, they lost their majority in the Senate when four Democrats switched parties. They lost the House in the 2004 election. Republicans then controlled all three partisan elements of the state government.

Even before 2002, the state had become increasingly supportive of Republicans in Presidential elections. It has supported a Democrat for president only three times since 1960. In 1976 and 1980, native son [[Jimmy Carter]] carried the state; in 1992, the former Arkansas governor [[Bill Clinton]] narrowly won the state. Generally, Republicans are strongest in the predominantly white suburban (especially the Atlanta suburbs) and rural portions of the state.<ref name="CNN.com: Election 2004">{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004//pages/results/states/GA/P/00/epolls.0.html |title=Election 2004 |publisher=CNN |access-date=October 24, 2010}}</ref> Many of these areas were represented by conservative Democrats in the state legislature well into the 21st century. One of the most conservative of these was U.S. Congressman [[Larry McDonald]], former head of the [[John Birch Society]], who died when the [[Soviet Union]] shot down [[KAL 007]] near [[Sakhalin Island]]. Democratic candidates have tended to win a higher percentage of the vote in the areas where black voters are most numerous,<ref name="CNN.com: Election 2004"/> as well as in the cities among liberal urban populations (especially Atlanta and Athens), and the central and southwestern portion of the state.

The ascendancy of the Republican Party in Georgia and in the South in general resulted in Georgia [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. House of Representatives]] member [[Newt Gingrich]] being elected as [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives|Speaker of the House]] following the election of a Republican majority in the House in 1994. Gingrich served as Speaker until 1999, when he resigned in the aftermath of the loss of House seats held by members of the GOP. Gingrich mounted an unsuccessful bid for president in the 2012 election, but withdrew after winning only the South Carolina and Georgia primaries.

In 2008, Democrat [[Jim Martin (Georgia politician)|Jim Martin]] ran against incumbent Republican Senator [[Saxby Chambliss]]. Chambliss failed to acquire the necessary 50 percent of votes due to a Libertarian Party candidate receiving the remainder of votes. In the [[runoff election]] held on December 2, 2008, Chambliss became the second Georgia Republican to be reelected to the U.S. Senate.

In the 2018 elections, the [[List of Governors of Georgia|governor]] remained a Republican (by 54,723 votes against a democratic [[African Americans|black]] [[female]], [[Stacey Abrams]]), Republicans lost eight seats in the [[Georgia House of Representatives]] (winning 106), while Democrats gained ten (winning 74), Republicans lost two seats in the [[Georgia State Senate|Georgia Senate]] (winning 35 seats), while Democrats gained two seats (winning 21), and five Democrat [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. Representatives]] were elected with Republicans winning nine seats (one winning with just 419 votes over the Democratic challenger, and one seat being lost).<ref>{{cite news |title=Georgia Election Results |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/election-results/georgia/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=January 27, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Georgia House of Representatives elections, 2018 |url=https://ballotpedia.org/Georgia_House_of_Representatives_elections,_2018 |website=ballotpedia.org |publisher=Ballotpedia |access-date=January 27, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Georgia State Senate elections, 2018 |url=https://ballotpedia.org/Georgia_State_Senate_elections,_2018 |website=ballotpedia.org |publisher=Ballotpedia |access-date=January 27, 2019}}</ref>

In the three presidential elections up to and including 2016, the Republican candidate has won Georgia by approximately five to eight points over the Democratic nominee, at least once for each election being narrower than margins recorded in some states that have flipped within that timeframe, such as [[United States presidential elections in Michigan|Michigan]], [[United States presidential elections in Ohio|Ohio]] and [[United States presidential elections in Wisconsin|Wisconsin]]. This trend led to the state electing Democrat [[Joe Biden]] for president in 2020, and it coming to be regarded as a [[swing state]].<ref name=biden1>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/19/joe-biden-president-georgia-recount|title=Joe Biden confirmed as Georgia winner after recount|work=The Guardian|access-date=January 7, 2021|date=November 20, 2020}}</ref><ref name=swing>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2020/11/08/georgia-swing-state-democrats/?arc404=true|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|title=How Georgia became a swing state for the first time in decades|access-date=January 7, 2021|date=November 8, 2020}}</ref>

In a 2020 study, Georgia was ranked as 49th on the "Cost of Voting Index" with only Texas ranking higher.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=J. Pomante II |first1=Michael |last2=Li |first2=Quan |title=Cost of Voting in the American States: 2020 |journal=Election Law Journal: Rules, Politics, and Policy |date=15 Dec 2020 |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=503–509 |doi=10.1089/elj.2020.0666 |s2cid=225139517 |url=https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/elj.2020.0666 |access-date=14 January 2022}}</ref>