Kamala Harris needs the votes of young black voters like Julian Roberts if she is to have any hope of winning Georgia, the swing state at the forefront of Donald Trump’s efforts to reverse the 2020 presidential election.
Joe Biden narrowly won the southeastern state four years ago, beating the Republican billionaire by less than 12,000 votes. The votes of African-Americans and young people were crucial.
But the Democratic camp fears this time that Kamala Harris, its candidate for the White House, will have difficulty repeating the feat because of new electoral rules intended according to it to hinder the vote of the African-American community, despite the wave of hope raised by her candidacy.
Joe Biden’s spectacular withdrawal from the race in favor of his vice-president, the first black woman to aim for the White House, has in fact completely reshuffled the cards.
His candidacy is “a huge inspiration,” said Julian Roberts, a 19-year-old college student, after Sunday service at a church in Fulton County, Georgia’s most populous county and about 45 percent black.
A breath of fresh air
Marchellos Scott, 21, a student at Morehouse College — a historically black, all-male college in Atlanta — agrees: the mood has “really changed.”
“We mobilized immediately to support” Kamala Harris, he said.
Since then, he has been campaigning to encourage students to register to vote and wants to organize bus transport on November 5.
It is unclear whether these efforts will be enough to limit the political disaffection seen among African-Americans over the past four years.
Black voters are traditionally Democratic, and the vice president needs them to turn out in large numbers, not just in Georgia.
According to a survey Washington Post-Ipsos conducted in April when Joe Biden was still a candidate, African-Americans saying they were “absolutely certain to vote” were only 62% compared to 74% before the 2020 election.
Recent surveys show that there is more enthusiasm for Harris’ candidacy.
Mondale Robinson, founder of the Black Male Voter Project, which aims to encourage black men to vote, cautions against complacency.
“We are not yet seeing any enthusiasm or support from those […] that we call sporadic voters.”
Some African-Americans “don’t identify with elections or the political class,” says Robinson, who is also mayor of Enfield, North Carolina.
Donald Trump is trying to woo black voters by dangling the carrot of the pre-COVID economy and the scarecrow of immigration, which he says threatens “black jobs.”
“Support for Donald Trump is overwhelming,” said Catherine Davis, a former Republican candidate for governor of the state. “His policies have benefited the black community, without being complacent.”
Economic concerns or the law passed under the Trump presidency to reduce prison sentences for less serious offenders will be enough to attract their votes, she argues.
Electoral restrictions
With turnout critical in key states, activists Winnie Taggart and Todd Belcore are organizing events to educate people on how to register or locate their polling place.
“We’re looking for people between the ages of 18 and 35,” Winnie Taggart told AFP at a meeting in an Atlanta coffee shop. “And also those who are a little discouraged by politics as it is right now.”
Wesley Benjamin, 74, one of the participants, plans to encourage his neighbors to register.
Fulton County, which includes much of the city of Atlanta, is significantly more Democratic than the rest of Georgia.
After the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump claimed, without any evidence, that Fulton was the scene of widespread fraud that cost him the state’s 16 electoral votes.
Georgia’s largely conservative election authority recently voted to ask the state attorney general to reinvestigate the county’s handling of the 2020 vote. Last week, it finalized a settlement giving local officials more ability to challenge election results.
Changes to electoral regulations, such as requiring people to provide more proof of identity to vote by mail, reduce access to ballot boxes where people can cast their mail-in ballots, and have a greater impact on the black vote, critics say.
During the pandemic, people have learned to use early and mail voting, “especially in Black and people of color communities,” says Wanda Mosley of the Black Voters Matter Fund.
These changes could be disruptive to those who want to continue, she continues.
Crystal Greer, an activist with the NGO Protect the Vote GA, says she has started informing voters earlier than usual and is recruiting “observers” to help people on the day.
“I definitely think that the barriers to voting have increased,” she said.