1936 Georgia gubernatorial election
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The 1936 Georgia gubernatorial election took place on November 3, 1936, in order to elect the Governor of Georgia.
Incumbent Democrat Governor Eugene Talmadge was term-limited, and ineligible to run for a third term. Talmadge instead ran for the U.S. Senate.
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 considered tantamount to election.
Democratic primary
The Democratic primary election was held on September 9, 1936. As Rivers won a majority of county unit votes, there was no run-off.
County unit system
From 1917 until 1962, the Democratic Party in the U.S. state of Georgia used a voting system called the county unit system to determine victors in statewide primary elections.[1]
The system was ostensibly designed to function similarly to the Electoral 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 a winner-take-all basis.[2][3]
Candidates were required to obtain a majority of 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, a runoff election was held between the top two candidates to determine a winner.[4]
Candidates
- Blanton Fortson, Georgia Superior Court judge[5]
- Charles D. Redwine, President of the Georgia State Senate[6]
- Eurith D. Rivers, Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives[6] and unsuccessful candidate for Democratic nomination for Governor in 1928 and 1930
Results
| Democratic primary[7][8][9] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Votes | % | CUV |
| Eurith D. Rivers | 233,503 | 59.98 | 372 |
| Charles D. Redwine | 123,095 | 31.62 | 30 |
| Blanton Fortson | 32,715 | 8.40 | 8 |
General election
In the general election, Rivers faced token opposition.
Results
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Eurith D. Rivers | 263,140 | 99.67% | ||
| Prohibition | L. P. Glass | 873 | 0.33% | ||
| Turnout | 264,013 | 100.00% | |||
| Democratic hold | Swing | ||||
References
- ^ "County Unit System". Georgia County Clerks Association. Archived from the original on 31 May 2008. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
- ^ a b "Eugene Talmadge". The Jim Crow Encyclopedia. The African American Experience. Archived from the original on 23 January 2015. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
- ^ a b "County Unit System, eh?". Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies. 6 October 2011. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
- ^ Buchanan, Scott (13 June 2017). "County Unit System". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
- ^ "Primary will test Talmadge record". Evening Star. Washington, D.C. 6 September 1936. p. A-5. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
- ^ a b "Talmadge beaten in Georgia race". Evening Star. Washington, D.C. 10 September 1936. p. 1. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
- ^ Congressional Quarterly 1998, p. 107.
- ^ "GA Governor, 1936 - D Primary". Our Campaigns. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
- ^ Georgia Register 1937, pp. 542–545.
- ^ Congressional Quarterly 1998, p. 48.
- ^ "GA Governor, 1936". Our Campaigns. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
- ^ Glashan 1979, pp. 68–69.
- ^ Georgia Register 1937, pp. 657.
Bibliography
- Gubernatorial Elections, 1787-1997. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Inc. 1998. ISBN 1-56802-396-0.
- Glashan, Roy R. (1979). American Governors and Gubernatorial Elections, 1775-1978. Meckler Books. ISBN 0-930466-17-9.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link) - Compiled by Mrs. J.E. Hays, State Historian and Director (1937). Georgia's Official Register, 1933-1935-1937 (PDF). Atlanta, GA: State of Georgia, Department of Archives and History.