In the lead up to and shortly following the 2020 election, Dr. Carol Anderson contributed political analysis and historical context to two major media organizations. Four days before the election, Anderson was a guest on the Democracy Now segment, “‘Fighting for Democracy’: Carol Anderson on Voter Suppression & Why Georgia Could Go Blue.” Her prediction that Georgians may vote for a democratic presidential candidate for the first time since 1992 seems likely to come true. Three days following the election, while officials in Georgia and other battleground states continued to count votes, Anderson offered historical context for The New York Times on the links between U.S. slavery and the Electoral College. Read an excerpt from that article below along with the full piece: “The Electoral College Is Close. The Popular Vote Isn’t.” Anderson is Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies and Associated Faculty in the History Department.
“We look at a map of so-called red and blue states and treat that map as land and not people,” said Carol Anderson, a professor of African-American studies at Emory University who researches voter suppression. “Why, when somebody has won millions more votes than their opponent, are we still deliberating over 10,000 votes here, 5,000 votes there?”