1948 United States Senate election in Georgia

none March 2026 September 2023 1948 United States Senate election in Georgia Georgia (U.S. state) 1920 Presidential no 1942 United States Senate election in Georgia 1942 1954 United States Senate election in Georgia 1954 November 2, 1948 x150px Richard Russell Jr. Democratic Party (United States) 362,104 99.89% 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 1948 United States Senate election in Georgia took place on November 2, 1948. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Richard Russell Jr. was re-elected to a fourth 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, 1948. 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 8 June 2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20080531162547/http://www.georgiacca.com/unit.cfm 31 May 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 12 August 2013 https://web.archive.org/web/20150123030046/http://testaae.greenwood.com/doc_print.aspx?fileID=GR4181&chapterID=GR4181-6373&path=encyclopedias%2Fgreenwood 23 January 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 8 June 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 13 June 2017 New Georgia Encyclopedia 8 June 2020 Candidates William C. Lankford, former U.S. Representative (write-in) Richard Russell Jr., incumbent U.S. Senator Results Democratic primaryCongressional Quarterly 1998 113Georgia Register 1950 570-573CandidateVotes%CUV County unit votes Richard Russell Jr. 703,048 99.98 410 William C. Lankford 118 0.02 0 General election Results 1948 U.S. Senate election in GeorgiaCongressional Quarterly 1998 84Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives 1949-03-01 Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 2, 1948 http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electioninfo/1948election.pdf U.S. Government Printing Officehttps://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=253840 GA US Senate, 1948 Our Campaigns 5 September 2021Georgia Register 1950 611-613 Democratic Party (United States) Richard Russell Jr. (incumbent) 362,104 99.89% Write-In Larkin Marshall 388 0.11% Write-In Ellis Arnall 9 0.00% Write-In Roy Harris 2 0.00% Write-In Harry Sommers 1 0.00% 362,504 Democratic Party (United States) References Bibliography Congressional Elections, 1946-1996 Washington, D.C. Congressional Quarterly Inc. 1998 1-56802-248-4 Congressional Quarterly 1998 Compiled by Mrs. J. E. Hays, State Historian and Director 1950 Georgia's Official Register, 1945-1950 http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/statreg-images/pdfs/1945.pdf Atlanta, Georgia State of Georgia, Department of Archives and History Georgia Register 1950 1948 Georgia United States Senate