1954 United States Senate election in Georgia

none March 2026 September 2023 1954 United States Senate election in Georgia Georgia (U.S. state) 1920 Presidential no 1948 United States Senate election in Georgia 1948 1960 United States Senate election in Georgia 1960 November 2, 1954 x150px Richard Russell Jr. Democratic Party (United States) 333,917 99.99% File:1958 Georgia gubernatorial election results map by county.svg 250px County resultsRussell: #0d0596 >90% U.S. Senator Richard Russell Jr. Democratic Party (United States) Richard Russell Jr. Democratic Party (United States) The 1954 United States Senate election in Georgia took place on November 2, 1954. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Richard Russell Jr. was re-elected to a fifth term in office. As was common at the time, the Democratic candidate ran with no 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 8, 1954. As Russell was unopposed, 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.http://www.georgiacca.com/unit.cfm County Unit System Georgia County Clerks Association June 8, 2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20080531162547/http://www.georgiacca.com/unit.cfm May 31, 2008 dead 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.http://testaae.greenwood.com/doc_print.aspx?fileID=GR4181&chapterID=GR4181-6373&path=encyclopedias/greenwood Eugene Talmadge The Jim Crow Encyclopedia The African American Experience August 12, 2013 https://web.archive.org/web/20150123030046/http://testaae.greenwood.com/doc_print.aspx?fileID=GR4181&chapterID=GR4181-6373&path=encyclopedias%2Fgreenwood January 23, 2015 dead http://rbrl.blogspot.com/2011/10/county-unit-system-eh.html County Unit System, eh? 6 October 2011 Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies June 8, 2020 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. 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.http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/county-unit-system County Unit System Buchanan Scott June 13, 2017 New Georgia Encyclopedia June 8, 2020 Candidates Richard Russell Jr., incumbent U.S. Senator Results Democratic primaryCongressional Quarterly 1998 113Georgia Register 1954 623-625CandidateVotes%CUV County unit votes Richard Russell Jr. 619,129 100.00 410 General election Results 1954 U.S. Senate election in GeorgiaCongressional Quarterly 1998 84Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives October 15, 1955 Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 2, 1954 http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electioninfo/1954election.pdf U.S. Government Printing Officehttps://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=48229 GA US Senate, 1954 Our Campaigns August 16, 2021America Votes 5 82Georgia Register 1956 702-705 Democratic Party (United States) Richard Russell Jr. (incumbent) 333,917 99.99% Scattering 19 0.01% 333,936 Democratic Party (United States) References Bibliography Congressional Elections, 1946-1996 Washington, D.C. Congressional Quarterly Inc. 1998 1-56802-248-4 Congressional Quarterly 1998 Scammon Richard M. America Votes 5: a handbook of contemporary American election statistics, 1962 Washington, D.C. Governmental Affairs Institute 1964 https://archive.org/details/americavotes5han00scam/mode/2up America Votes 5 Compiled by Mrs. Mary Givens Bryan, State Historian and Director 1954 Georgia's Official Register, 1953-1954 http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/statreg-images/pdfs/1953.pdf Atlanta, Georgia State of Georgia, Department of Archives and History Georgia Register 1954 Compiled by Mrs. Mary Givens Bryan, Director 1956 Georgia's Official Register, 1955-1956 http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/statreg-images/pdfs/1955.pdf Atlanta, Georgia State of Georgia, Department of Archives and History Georgia Register 1956 Category:Single-candidate United States Senate elections 1954 Georgia United States Senate