1960 United States Senate election in Georgia

none March 2026 September 2023 1960 United States Senate election in Georgia Georgia (U.S. state) 1956 Presidential no 1954 United States Senate election in Georgia 1954 1966 United States Senate election in Georgia 1966 November 8, 1960 x150px Richard Russell Jr. Democratic Party (United States) 576,140 99.94% 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 1960 United States Senate election in Georgia took place on November 8, 1960. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Richard Russell Jr. was re-elected to a sixth 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 14, 1960. 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? October 6, 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 1960 871-874CandidateVotes%CUV County unit votes Richard Russell Jr. 560,256 100.00 410 General election Results 1960 U.S. Senate election in GeorgiaCongressional Quarterly 1998 84Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives 1961 Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 8, 1960 http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electioninfo/1960election.pdf April 30, 2019 U.S. Government Printing Officehttps://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=48228 GA US Senate, 1960 Our Campaigns August 16, 2021America Votes 5 82Georgia Register 1960 930-935 Democratic Party (United States) Richard Russell Jr. (incumbent) 576,140 99.94% Scattering 355 0.06% 576,495 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, Director 1960 Georgia's Official Register, 1959-1960 http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/statreg-images/pdfs/1959.pdf Atlanta, Georgia State of Georgia, Department of Archives and History Georgia Register 1960 Category:Single-candidate United States Senate elections 1960 Georgia United States Senate