1942 Georgia gubernatorial election
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410 county unit votes 206 unit votes needed to win | ||||||||||||||||||||
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County results Arnall:50-60%60-70%70-80%80-90% Talmadge:50-60%60-70%70-80%80-90% | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Elections in Georgia |
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The1942 Georgia gubernatorial electiontook place on November 3, 1942, in order to elect thegovernor of Georgia.The governor was elected to a four-year term for the first time, instead of a two-year term.
IncumbentDemocraticGovernorEugene Talmadgewas defeated in the Democratic primary.
As was common at the time, the Democratic candidate ran with only token opposition in the general election so therefore the Democratic primary was the real contest, and winning the primary was consideredtantamount to election.
Democratic primary[edit]
The Democraticprimary electionwas held on September 9, 1942. As there were only two candidates, there was norun-off.
County unit system[edit]
From 1917 until 1962, theDemocratic Partyin theU.S. stateofGeorgiaused a voting system called thecounty unit systemto determine victors in statewide primary elections.[1]
The system was ostensibly designed to function similarly to theElectoral College,but in practice the large ratio of unit votes for small, rural counties to unit votes for more populous urban areas provided outsized political influence to the smaller counties.[2][3]
Under the county unit system, the 159 counties in Georgia were divided by population into three categories. The largest eight counties were classified as "Urban", the next-largest 30 counties were classified as "Town", and the remaining 121 counties were classified as "Rural". Urban counties were given 6 unit votes, Town counties were given 4 unit votes, and Rural counties were given 2 unit votes, for a total of 410 available unit votes. Each county's unit votes were awarded on awinner-take-allbasis.[2][3]
Candidates were required to obtain amajorityof unit votes (not necessarily a majority of the popular vote), or 206 total unit votes, to win the election. If no candidate received a majority in the initial primary, arunoff electionwas held between the top two candidates to determine a winner.[4]
Candidates[edit]
Results[edit]
Candidate | Popular vote | County unit vote | ||
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Votes | % | Votes | % | |
Ellis Arnall | 174,757 | 57.65 | 261 | 63.66 |
Eugene Talmadge | 128,399 | 42.35 | 149 | 36.34 |
Total | 303,156 | 100.00 | 410 | 100.00 |
Source:[5][6][7] |
General election[edit]
In the general election, Arnall faced token opposition.
Results[edit]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
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Democratic | Ellis Arnall | 62,220 | 96.30% | ||
Write-in | D. Talmadge Bowers | 1,701 | 2.63% | ||
Write-in | J. N. Foreman | 687 | 1.06% | ||
Turnout | 64,608 | 100.00% | |||
Democratichold | Swing |
References[edit]
- ^"County Unit System".Georgia County Clerks Association. Archived fromthe originalon May 31, 2008.RetrievedJune 8,2020.
- ^ab"Eugene Talmadge".The Jim Crow Encyclopedia.The African American Experience. Archived fromthe originalon January 23, 2015.RetrievedAugust 12,2013.
- ^ab"County Unit System, eh?".Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies. October 6, 2011.RetrievedJune 8,2020.
- ^Buchanan, Scott (June 13, 2017)."County Unit System".New Georgia Encyclopedia.RetrievedJune 8,2020.
- ^Congressional Quarterly 1998,p. 107.
- ^"GA Governor, 1942 - D Primary".Our Campaigns.RetrievedJune 17,2020.
- ^Georgia Register 1943,pp. 653–656.
- ^Congressional Quarterly 1998,p. 48.
- ^"GA Governor, 1942".Our Campaigns.RetrievedJune 17,2020.
- ^Glashan 1979,pp. 68–69.
- ^Georgia Register 1943,pp. 688–691.
Bibliography[edit]
- Gubernatorial Elections, 1787-1997.Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Inc. 1998.ISBN1-56802-396-0.
- Glashan, Roy R. (1979).American Governors and Gubernatorial Elections, 1775-1978.Meckler Books.ISBN0-930466-17-9.
- Compiled by Mrs. J.E. Hays, State Historian and Director (1943).Georgia's Official Register, 1939-1941-1943(PDF).Atlanta, GA: State of Georgia, Department of Archives and History.
- Georgia (U.S. state) gubernatorial elections
- 1942 United States gubernatorial elections
- 1942 Georgia (U.S. state) elections
- November 1942 events in the United States
- United States gubernatorial elections in the 1940s
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- Single-candidate elections
- 1940s in Georgia (U.S. state)
- 1940s Georgia (U.S. state) elections
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