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We consider how pandemic-related shifts in election administration and racial justice protest activity impacted participation in 2020 primary and general elections in Georgia. Using a comprehensive statewide voter file, including data on the self-reported race and validated turnout of over 7 million registered Georgians, we analyze the combined effect of these events on racial differences in voter turnout rates, methods, and timing. We find that despite a shift to mail balloting, Black voters were significantly more likely to vote in person during the pandemic than White Democrats. These voters were later less likely to vote by mail (or vote at all) in November. We also demonstrate that Black turnout was significantly higher in the period following racial justice protests in Georgia than it was for other groups. The results of this study indicate how election reforms and non-electoral mobilization can shape turnout disparities even among highly engaged voters.

The spread and energy of protests against racial injustice and police brutality throughout summer 2020 featured the forcible removal of monuments by members of the public. In this article, we argue that these "publicly initiated" monument removals are a novel tactic in the protest repertoire that can be differentiated from the removal of monuments by public officials. Methods: Using data from the Confederate Monuments Project, we analyze whether factors such as protest momentum and state repression of demonstrators differentiate removal type. Results: We find that monuments in locations with a greater number of protests in June 2020 were more likely to be removed by the public. We do not find support for a relationship between the use of state repression and public monument removal. Conclusion:Our findings suggest that scholars should continue to pursue the distinction between these two types of monuments, particularly in regards to the study of protest and political mobilization.Hand extended toward the sky, the statue of Jefferson Davis lay on the ground, toppled by protesters in Richmond, Virginia, on June 10, 2020. The forcible removal of the likeness of the Confederacy's former president was one of several similar incidents in the one-time capital of the Confederate States of America (CSA). It also numbered among the almost 100 monument removals that took place across the country in 2020 (Treisman, 2021). From the United States to the United Kingdom, and elsewhere around the globe, it was through acts such as these that crowds reclaimed public spaces from legacies of white supremacy.These monuments fell amidst the historic diffusion and sustained energy of a multitude of protests that summer, including those centered around Black Lives Matter (BLM), racial injustice, police brutality, and anti-fascist ideology. These 2020 summer protests featured an unusual tactic in the American protest setting: the forcible removal of historical monuments by members of the public (Hinton, 2021). Rather than petition for the removal of monuments or wait for elected officials to act, monuments were physically toppled by the public-what we refer to in this article as "publicly initiated removals." Just as protesters in Richmond coalesced to remove the long-standing statue of Jefferson Davis, protestors around the world also toppled monuments dedicated to immortalizing histories of colonization and white supremacy.This article makes the argument for consideration of a new protest tactic-the publicly initiated removal of monuments related to the Confederate cause and white supremacy in the United States. Unlike sanctioned "preemptive removals" initiated by the state or the monument's sponsors, activists and citizens used monument removal as a tactic to force officials' hands. While other important work on the topic has