Georgia, with its long history of the suppression of Black voters, has been ground zero for fights about voting rights laws for decades. The state has often seen stark differences in turnout between white and nonwhite communities, with the latter typically voting at a much lower rate. But not always: In the 2012 election, when Barack Obama won a second term in the White House, the turnout rate for Black voters under 38 in Lowndes County — a Republican-leaning county in southern Georgia — was actually four percentage points higher than the rate for white voters of a similar age. According to new research by Michael Podhorzer, the former political director of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., by 2020, turnout for younger white voters in Lowndes was 14 percentage points higher than for Black voters of the same age. It is impossible to tell for certain, with many variables, such as Obama no longer being on the ballot.

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Persons: Barack Obama, Lowndes County —, Georgia —, Michael Podhorzer, Lowndes, Obama Organizations: Black, Republican Locations: Georgia, Lowndes County