1942 Georgia gubernatorial election

none related races 1942 United States gubernatorial elections January 2025 September 2023 1942 Georgia Democratic gubernatorial primary Georgia (U.S. state) 1920 Presidential no 1940 Georgia gubernatorial election 1940 1946 Georgia gubernatorial election 1946 September 9, 1942 Ellis Gibbs Arnall, Governor of Georgia Edit.jpg Ellis Arnall Democratic Party (United States) 261 174,757 57.65% Eugene Talmadge circa 1935.jpg Eugene Talmadge 149 Democratic Party (United States) 128,399 42.35% File:1942 Georgia gubernatorial Democratic primary election results map by county.svg 250px County resultsArnall: #7996e2 50–60% #6674de 60–70% #584cde 70–80% #3933e5 80–90%Talmadge: #d3bc5f 50–60% #c8ab37 60–70% #a0892c 70–80% #786721 80–90% Governor Eugene Talmadge Democratic Party (United States) Ellis Arnall Democratic Party (United States) 410 county unit votes 206 unit The 1942 Georgia gubernatorial election took place on November 3, 1942, in order to elect the governor of Georgia. The governor was elected to a four-year term for the first time, instead of a two-year term. Incumbent Democratic governor Eugene Talmadge was 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 considered tantamount to election. Democratic primary The Democratic primary election was held on September 9, 1942. As there were only two candidates, 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 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 Ellis Arnall, Attorney General of Georgia Eugene Talmadge, incumbent governor Results Popular vote County unit vote Ellis Arnall 174757 261 Eugene Talmadge 128399 149 Congressional Quarterly 1998 107https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=377400 GA Governor, 1942 - D Primary Our Campaigns 17 June 2020Georgia Register 1943 653-656 General election In the general election, Arnall faced token opposition. Results 1942 Georgia gubernatorial electionCongressional Quarterly 1998 48https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=261914 GA Governor, 1942 Our Campaigns 17 June 2020Glashan 1979 68-69Georgia Register 1943 688-691 Democratic Party (United States) Ellis Arnall 62,220 96.30% Write-in D. Talmadge Bowers 1,701 2.63% Write-in J. N. Foreman 687 1.06% 64,608 100.00% Democratic Party (United States) References Bibliography Gubernatorial Elections, 1787-1997 Washington, D.C. Congressional Quarterly Inc. 1998 1-56802-396-0 Congressional Quarterly 1998 Glashan Roy R. American Governors and Gubernatorial Elections, 1775-1978 Meckler Books 1979 0-930466-17-9 Compiled by Mrs. J.E. Hays, State Historian and Director 1943 Georgia's Official Register, 1939-1941-1943 http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/statreg-images/pdfs/1939.pdf Atlanta, GA State of Georgia, Department of Archives and History Georgia Register 1943 1942 Georgia Gubernatorial Category:November 1942 in the United States Category:September 1942 in the United States Category:Single-candidate gubernatorial elections in Georgia