1954 Georgia gubernatorial election

none January 2025 September 2023 1954 Georgia Democratic gubernatorial primary Georgia (U.S. state) presidential no 1950 Georgia gubernatorial election 1950 1958 Georgia gubernatorial election 1958 September 8, 1954 1920 Marvingriffin (cropped).gif Marvin Griffin Democratic Party (United States) 234,690 36.32% 302 Lt. Gov. M.E. Thompson Edit.jpg Melvin E. Thompson Democratic Party (United States) 162,007 25.07% 56 Tom Linder.png Tom Linder Democratic Party (United States) 87,240 13.50% 26 Fred Hand.png Frederick Barrow Hand Democratic Party (United States) 78,125 12.09% 22 Charlie Gowen.png Charlie Gowen Democratic Party (United States) 73,809 11.42% 4 File:1954 Georgia gubernatorial Democratic primary election results map by county.svg 250px County resultsGriffin: #dae9ff 20–30% #bdd3ff 30–40% #a5b0ff 40–50% #7996e2 50–60% #6674de 60–70% #584cde 70–80%Thompson: #f1e9c5 30–40% #e9ddaf 40–50% #d3bc5f 50–60% #c8ab37 60–70% #a0892c 70–80% Linder: #ffe9ff 30–40% #ffd4ff 40–50% #ffbce3 50–60% #ff67ff 60–70%Hand: #cbf6c7 20–30% #cbf6c7 30–40% #b9f0a6 40–50% #3e9249 80–90%Gowen: #c21b18 80–90% Governor Herman Talmadge Democratic Party (United States) Marvin Griffin Democratic Party (United States) 206 unit 410 county unit votes The 1954 Georgia gubernatorial election was held on November 2, 1954. Lieutenant Governor Marvin Griffin won the Democratic primary on September 8 with 36.52% of the vote and 302 out of 410 county unit votes. At this time, Georgia was a one-party state, and the Democratic nomination was tantamount to victory. Griffin won the November general election without an opponent. This was the final of Melvin Thompson's three failed bids for Governor. Democratic primary 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 https://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.https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/county-unit-system County Unit System Buchanan Scott 13 June 2017 New Georgia Encyclopedia 8 June 2020 Candidates Marvin Griffin, incumbent Lieutenant Governor Charlie Gowen, State Representative from Brunswick Frederick Barrow Hand, Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives Tom Linder, Commissioner of Agriculture Melvin Thompson, former Governor (1947–48) Results Popular vote County unit vote Marvin Griffin 234690 302 Melvin Thompson 162007 56 Tom Linder 87240 26 Frederick Barrow Hand 78125 22 Charlie Gowen 73809 4 Grace Wilkey Thomas 6285 Ben Garland 2847 Edmond Barfield 747 Arthur H. Neeson 485 https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=498739 Our Campaigns - GA Governor - D Primary Race - Sep 08, 1954 General election Results Georgia gubernatorial election, 1954http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=171174 Our Campaigns - GA Governor Race - Nov 02, 1954 Democratic Party (United States) Marvin Griffin 331,899 99.98% N/A write-ins 67 0.02% 331,832 99.96 331,966 Democratic Party (United States) References 1954 Gubernatorial Georgia Category:November 1954 in the United States Category:Single-candidate gubernatorial elections in Georgia Category:September 1954 in the United States